New Girl in Town
by KaoruTheRandomBookworm
Summary: There's a new girl in Sonic's town w a mysterious past. Trained in martial arts but is a pacifist? Can speak chao but doesn't want anyone to know? Old friends with Vanilla and Cream? A crush on SHADOW! And what about that weird ferret? Is something up?
1. Introducing Kaoru The Hare

In the bushes outside of a large house, three animals were quietly having a conversation.

"Kaoru," a pink hedgehog said, "how long do you think they're going to be in there?"

"I don't know, Amy," a chocolate brown hare in black hoody replied. "Do you think we can get closer?"

A yellow ferret with glasses dashed out from the bushes and approached a window, looking inside. Turning around she said, "I think they're about to eat. Let's go in and see if they'll share. I'm hungry."

The brown hare shook her head, "You're always hungry, Ash. We can't just...Ash?"

The yellow ferret scurried to the front door and threw it open.

"ASH!" Amy yelled at the same time Kaoru yelled, "GET BACK HERE!" but it was too late. Amy and Kaoru peeked over the bushes and, through the window, could see Ash talking to the people inside. Though there was a glare on Ash's glasses, Kaoru could practically see the flash of triumph in the ferret's eyes to match the mischievous grin playing on her lips.

Kaoru tugged on Amy's hand and pulled her towards the window where they crouched low, trying not to be seen, but when Ash pointed out the window at Amy and Kaoru, the jig was up.

Ash opened the window, "Good news guys! They're going to feed us!"

Kaoru put her face in her hands, "Oh no...Ash, how could you?"

"Just come on." Reaching through the window, Ash yanked Amy and Kaoru into the house.

Sitting at the table, staring wide-eyed, was a yellow fox, a black hedgehog, and a blue hedgehog.

"SONIC!" Amy yelled, pulling an empty chair next to Sonic.

Kaoru shuffled her feet by the window, trying to hide the blush forming on their cheeks.

Ash, who had walked out of the room, returned with a plate piled two feet high with food and stood next to Kaoru. Stuffing a turkey leg into her mouth she said, "Tails, Sonic, Shadow, this is Kaoru."

Kaoru stuffed her hands into the pockets of her hoody and looked away, mumbling a hello.

"Yo," Sonic said.

"Nice to meet you," Tails said, giving a small wave.

Shadow only lifted his eyebrows at this newcomer and gave a small, "humph." He studied her a second, taking in her black hoodie and her black hair, her bangs hanging over one eye.

"Actually Shadow," Ash continued through a large bite of potato salad, "you could say Kaoru is a bit of a fan of yours."

Indifferent, he went back to his food. Kaoru, on the other hand, had let her blush redden and creep down her neck.

Ash slapped Kaoru on the back, "Don't be shy!" Ash dashed out of the room and came back with a chair. She placed it next to Shadow and pushed Kaoru into it, then put Shadow's arm around Kaoru's shoulder.

Shadow stiffened and quickly removed his arm. He jumped up and walked out the room mumbling something that sounded strangely like, "Crazy Ferret and her crazy friends."

Ash laughed, "I think he likes you Kaoru..."

Kaoru's eyes widened noticeable. Flustered, she ran and jumped out the window, disappearing down the street.

Ash sobered up quickly, "Was it something I did?"

Amy shook her head in disbelief, "You just embarrassed her! I'll go after her. Bye Sonic, I'll come back later." Amy jumped out the window, chasing after Kaoru.

Sonic didn't seem to have noticed, but Tails laughed nervously, "She seemed nice."

Ash shrugged and left for a new plate of food. Coming back, she set the now five foot high food pile on the table and started shoving things in her mouth, "Was only telling the truth...so touchy...she'll be back."

* * *

**A/N**

**Please review**

**P.S. For more fun with Ash The Ferret please visit Author: "AWriterThatCan'tSpell". Story: "Sonic Truth or Dare"**

**For more fun with Kaoru the Hare please visit: Author: "AWriterThatCan'tSpell". Story: "Sonic Truth or Dare" (last chapter) OR Author: "KaoruTheRandomBookworm." Story(s): Sonic:Let's Play Tag or Cream: Tickle Party. **

**Please review. **

**Thank you. **


	2. Only When I'm Excited

Kaoru was standing in the middle of what looked like a living room, screaming at nothing.

"Ms. Kaoru, can you please calm down?" a small rabbit said, her small chao cowering behind her.

"Cream, I think you should go upstairs and watch TV. I think the Next Show is on," Amy said, kneeling next to the small rabbit.

Cream and Cheese gave out cheers of excitement and bounced all the way upstairs.

"Kaoru, I don't think yelling will make you feel better..." Amy started, reaching out a hand towards Kaoru.

Kaoru whirled around, "I CAN'T BELIEVE ASH DID THAT! AND IN FRONT OF SHADOW!"

"It wasn't really that bad..."

"Oh yeah? What if she did that to _you_ in front of _Sonic_?"

Fire burned in Amy's eyes and she pulled out her hammer, "Then I'll have a little surprise for her."

The smile on Amy's face worried Kaoru greatly. "W-well, then I-I guess it's a g-good thing she di-didn't," Kaoru laughed nervously.

Amy's smile turned sincere and she put her hammer away, "All you need is to find your own way around. You're new around here, you'll learn fast."

Kaoru plopped down onto the floor and put her face into her hands, "I can't believe my mom sent me here."

Amy sat down next to Kaoru. "You shouldn't worry about it too much. Vanilla is your mom's friend, right? She'll take good care of you, and you'll always have me and Cream. You'll be fine."

Kaoru managed a weak smile. "I don't know why my mom is so worried about me. Moving me next door to Vanilla and Cream...Well, I'll never be bored." Suddenly, Kaoru jumped up and ran out of the room. "Be right back," she yelled from down the hall.

Amy stood up and sat down on the lime green sofa in Kaoru's living room. A few seconds later, Kaoru returned with a large notebook and handed it to Amy. Amy opened it and inside there were a lot of pictures of Shadow the Hedgehog. How they had come to be in Kaoru's possession, Amy didn't ask.

"Amy, I..." Kaoru started, but she stopped, biting her lip.

"Yes?" Amy prodded, still looking through the photos.

Kaoru touched Amy's shoulder and waited for Amy to look at her. When she did, Kaoru said, "I kind of have a small crush on Shadow."

Amy stared at Kaoru a few moments and waited for the punchline. After a few seconds, Amy realized Kaoru wasn't joking. "Y-you're asking my advice? Mine?"

Kaoru shook her head. "Not exactly...I just want..."

A smug look crossed Amy's face. "Of course you are! I _am_ an expert, and _you _want my help to win over Shadow!"

"Amy, I just..."

"And of course I'll help! Absolutely! In fact, I'll move in! We'll get a ton of stuff done if I'm that much closer!"

"Amy..."

Amy stood up and smiled, "I'll go get my things now." Amy ran out the front door and Kaoru looked on after her.

Hearing the slight commotion, Cream came downstairs. "Ms. Kaoru?"

Kaoru jumped up and whirled around to see the small rabbit looking up at her. "Didn't I tell you to stop calling me miss? Is there something you'd like?"

Cream giggled slightly. "Your tail is twitching, does that happen often?"

Kaoru smiled, a little embarrassed. "Only when I'm excited," she muttered as she glanced out the front door once more.

* * *

**A/N**

**As of now, I have no idea what's going to happen. So, we'll see how that works out. **

**Please review. **


	3. Ash Moves In

Kaoru was leaning over a large notebook at the desk in her bedroom, and Amy was watching her from across the room. Amy had taken one look at the notebook after Kaoru pulled it out from under her bed and knew that this notebook was something Kaoru took seriously. Inside, there were pages that had been ripped and torn. There were pages that had tiny writing and others with things written haphazardly across the page. There were pages that didn't belong in the notebook taped into the inside. There were things written sideways and things written in highlighter and other various spur of the moment things such as lipstick and nail polish. Amy stared, gaping at the notebook. That's all she could do when she first saw it, gape at it. When Kaoru had noticed Amy's expression, she blushed and muttered that she liked to write. Kaoru almost immediately sat down after that and started scribbling furiously into her notebook. Amy had moved back to watch her and could only wonder what she writing. After Kaoru had been preoccupied for about fifteen minutes, Amy heard a knock downstairs and went to answer it.

"SONIC!" Amy screamed as she glomped him.

A look of pain crossed Sonic's face, "Amy...have you seen Ash?"

Anger flashed in Amy's eyes and her hammer appeared in her hand, "What do you need to see Ash for?"

"I don't need her, Tails does. He's angry because someone took the new mecha he was working on."

Amy's expression softened, "What makes you think it was Ash?"

Just then, a window rattling crash came from the backyard. Amy and Sonic exchanged looks of horror and ran to the back yard. Stepping onto Kaoru's back porch, Sonic cocked his eyebrows and looked over at Amy. "I believe that's why we think it was Ash."

Laying in the yard was the now twisted metal of Tail's new flying mecha. Sonic and Amy stared at the rubble for a few moments, and then Ash popped up from the smoke and rubbed the back of her neck, looking slightly embarrassed. "Ha...ha...h-hi guys...r-rough landing."

Amy was too shocked to speak and, seeing this, Sonic said, "Rough landing? Ash, Tails is going to be angry..."

Fear became apparent on Ash's face, "O-oh no...I...I only wanted to fly it. It was going good until the landing."

Sonic put his face in one of his hands. "That's because when you took it, Tails had just removed all of the landing gear and went to get a replacement part."

Ash gave a nervous laugh..."Oh...haha...well...I didn't know that."

Amy put her hands on her hips, "You would've known if you would've asked first."

Ash jumped up with a cocky look on her face. "ASKING IS FOR LOSERS AND PANSEYS! I, ASH, AM NEITHER!"

Sonic crossed his arms, "I see...You know, Tails isn't going to let you live in his house anymore..."

Ash's features lost their cockiness and she fell to her knees on the floor, "Oh no..." Jumping back up, she smiled, "NOT A PROBLEM! I'll just live with my cousin..."

Amy's face filled with skepticism, "You have a cousin living around here?"

Ash nodded, "Yes, I do...She's new in fact..."

Suddenly, Kaoru's head poked out of the upstairs window, "Amy! I need to show you what I've...What happened?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Guys, why is there a mecha in my backyard?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Seriously guys..."

Sonic cringed a little, "Didn't you hear anything?"

"No..."

Sonic put his face into his hand again, "I need to get out of here," and then he was gone.

"Sometimes I'm so distracted when I'm writing that I don't realize what's going on around me," Kaoru explained to the remaining two when they walked upstairs to her room.

Amy shook her head, "Long story short, Ash took Tail's mecha for a joy ride, _(haha, I just wanted to see what it was like...) _and Sonic thinks Tails won't let her live at his house anymore. So, she said she's going to ask her cousin if she can live there."

Kaoru crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the wall, crossing one of her ankles over the other. "Oh? Are you, Ash?" She said sarcasm in her voice.

Ash chuckled nervously, "Well...yeah...Um...Kaoru...CAN I LIVE HERE?"

Amy looked from Kaoru to Ash and back again, "You guys are cousins?"

Ash nodded excitedly, "Yeah, and now I get to LIVE here!"

"I don't recall saying that..."

"But...I...I'm going to be living here for the next month or two to help Kaoru..." Amy said as fear filled her eyes.

"AMY!" Kaoru shouted, cutting Amy off. The look in Kaoru's eyes told Amy that she didn't want Ash to know. "Both of you can live here...no problem. Ash...you can only live here if you promise to behave..."

Ash made an ok sign with her fingers, "HAI!"

Horror filled Amy's eyes. _This is going to be a hard two months..._


	4. The bacon heist

"What were you so absorbed in writing in yesterday, Kaoru?" Amy asked the next morning as she cooked breakfast.

Kaoru was sitting at the island staring at her notebook in front of her. "Huh? ...Oh, yeah. I made a list of things I need to do to get Shadow's attention," she blushed slightly, "if that's what we're going to do, I mean."

Amy shook her head, "You can't get someone's attention from working off of a list Kaoru..." Amy set the bacon and toast on the counter beside her and handed Kaoru a plate of eggs. "It's all about looks and skill, where will lists get us in life? How many pieces of bacon do you want?"

"Will you at least look at the list, Amy? Two will be fine."

Amy turned around to grab some bacon but noticed that the entire plate had disappeared, "What the...?"

Kaoru, who had taken a drink of chocolate milk, looked out the window and choked. "Look...behind...you..." she got out between coughs.

Amy glanced out the window and quickly became furious. "ASH!"

Ash was sitting in the middle of the backyard. She had set up all of the toast like a houses and the bacon had become little people. She found the biggest piece of bacon and had it terrorizing the town she had made. If the biggest piece of bacon knocked over a house, she would eat it and it he took a person hostage, she put that person out of his misery (eating it of course). When she heard Amy yell her name she looked up, smiled, and waved. Standing up, she shoved the rest of the food in to her mouth and walked into the kitchen. "I'm hungry, what's for breakfast?"

Fury entered Amy's eyes, "WHAT'S FOR BREAKFAST? YOU JUST ATE OUR BREAKFAST!"

Ash's face was blank, "...but I thought you left that out as a snack for me..."

Kaoru choked on her chocolate milk laughing. "Sorry Amy, I should've warned you. Ash eats about twenty-five hours a day, eight days a week."

"Nuh-uh! I eat every day of the week! Not just eight of them!"

"...Here Ash, you can have my eggs if you're still hungry..." Kaoru said as she pushed her plate toward Ash, who quickly grabbed the plate and ran.

"Do you have a problem with my eggs?" Amy asked.

"No, but I still have to show you what I've written." Kaoru passed her notebook over the counter as Amy sat down to read it.

_To win Shadow's heart..._

_Item number 1: _

_Item number 2: _

_Item number 3: _

"Kaoru, there isn't anything written next to these numbers..." Amy said after a few minutes.

"Yeah...I know. I just wrote down the numbers. As you teach my how to act...I can write it all in."

Amy continued to stare at the page for a few seconds, and then she ripped the paper out of the notebook. Kaoru's eyes widened noticeably and she stared at Amy in shock. "Why...what...huh..." she said, her voice full of misery.

"Kaoru, listen, a list is NOT how you win someone's heart. You do not need this. You will just do everything I say...WHY AREN'T YOU WRITING THIS DOWN?"

"...Because you just tore up my list..."

Amy's looked at the paper in her hand and shoved it back towards Kaoru. "Now, you'll need to take notes. Make sure you get everything I say..."

* * *

**a/n **

**pretty much a fluff chapter, but I had to set up the Amy/Ash relationship...we're already off to a rough start and it will be deeply important. Maybe..if thinks go my way...**


	5. Mysterious Past?

_To win Shadow's heart..._

_Item number 1: Do everything Amy says. She is the expert at this and the only way I can succeed is by following her lead._

_Item number 2: Make sure I observe the way Amy talks to Sonic, this will be very important in my own speaking to Shadow._

_Item number 3: Make sure to act the way Amy acts when she is around Sonic, all men like this and Shadow is sure to love it. _

_Item number 4: Make sure to find out everything Shadow likes to do and push him into spending time by suggesting to do it. _

_Item number 5: Know where Shadow is at all times, guys love it when you follow them around and show up where they are... _

"Great, the list is coming along quite nicely thanks to me," Amy said, pushing the notebook back to Kaoru. "You were concentrating really hard yesterday, this list can't be the only thing you wrote."

Kaoru blushed deeply. "Well...I...I...well...I wrote a poem...about us...our little...family unit...thing we have going on here...to...you know...thank you..." Kaoru was clearly uncomfortable at the thought of showing her poem.

Amy smiled softly. "It's okay, you can show me later. Are you hungry?" Amy asked, as she turned to walk away.

"Starved," Kaoru said, smiling, relief showing on her face.

* * *

Kaoru and Amy walked up the drive to Tails's house and knocked on the door. Sonic answered and looked around them, "Ash isn't here, is she? Tails is really upset about his mecha and said not to let her in the house."

Kaoru laughed and followed Sonic into the living room, bouncing lightly on her toes as she walked. Tails and Shadow were sitting on the couch watching something on the television. Seeing Shadow, Kaoru clammed up slightly but continued to speak. "I'm...um...sorry about my cousin, Tails. She gets...overexcited sometimes. She didn't mean to crash your mecha."

At this, Sonic sputtered a bit. "You're cousins? But...she's a ferret and you're a hare."

Kaoru laughed lightly, "It's uh...a long story...Ash and I aren't really cousins. We grew up together in the same home. Ash's mom and my mom were best friends and we just kind of...called each other cousins...She left the house a few years before me and moved here...obviously"

"Why did you grow up in the same house?" Tails inquired.

Kaoru didn't answer. She just stared at the wall behind Tails, barely moving. She could feel everyone's eyes on her but she couldn't bring herself to speak. She heard a small "humph" come from Shadow who then walked out of the room, once again muttering about the crazy people who always seem to be hanging around the house.

"If he's so unhappy, I don't understand why he just doesn't leave," Tails said, watching Shadow's retreating back.

"It's almost as if there is an outside force keeping him here against his will," Sonic said, looking away from him.

Amy looked at Kaoru and smiled.

"Not to be greedy or anything, Tails, but we're kind of hungry and we can't exactly eat at our house. Do you mind if you use your kitchen?"

Tails shook his head, "No, go ahead. Can you make enough for all of us?" As Sonic and Tails sat down and started to play a video game, Amy and Kaoru walked to the kitchen.

Amy dug through the cabinets and pulled out some pots and pans to start cooking, while Kaoru sat down at the small kitchen table. "Do you think Shadow will be eating with us tonight?" Kaoru asked quietly.

"Hmmm, I guess...Tails said to make enough for everyone..." Amy replied as the sound of the doorbell rang throughout the house.

Amy and Kaoru stood quietly in the kitchen for a few moments. The only sounds they they heard were shouts coming from the living Tails and Sonic were obviously very absorbed in the game they were playing. Kaoru stood up and muttered, "Boys." On her way to the front door she poked her head into the living room. "Oh don't worry, I'll get it," she said sarcastically as the doorbell rang again.

"Okay!" Sonic and Tails yelled together, not taking their eyes off of the TV screen.

Shaking her head in disbelief, Kaoru continued her walk to the front door. Her eyes widened when she opened it and she gasped loudly.

* * *

**A/N**

**Sorry for the cliff hanger, but don't worry, the new chapter SHOULD be up tomorrow. Just...don't take my word for it. **

**Please review. **


	6. More Food

Amy ran up behind Kaoru to look out the door..."OH! Hi Knuckles! Will you be joining us for dinner?" Knuckles nodded curtly and walked past Amy and Kaoru into the front hallway. "I don't know if you've met her yet, but this is Kaoru."

"We know each other," Knuckles said, glaring down at Kaoru. "I also know her cousin. She isn't here, is she?"

Amy looked sideways at Kaoru, giving her a questioning look. Kaoru was biting her lip really hard and her expression was that of a whipped puppy. Seeing that Kaoru wasn't going to talk in front of Knuckles anytime soon, Amy answered, "No, Ash isn't allowed in the house right now..."

Knuckles nodded again and walked away into the living room, throwing himself down onto the couch and crossing his arms.

Amy poked her head around the corner and whispered, "Not in a good mood, is he? What was that all about, Kaoru?"

Kaoru only shook her head, "I'll tell you later, can we just go back to the kitchen for now?" Kaoru ran back to the kitchen, bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet. "Do you...uh...need help with anything?" She asked Amy as she took a sausage off of a skillet.

Amy passed two onions over to Kaoru, a red one and a yellow one, eyeing her suspiciously. "Chop that up...and the bell peppers too," she said, passing over the fruit.

Kaoru lifted the knife and found that she could barely hold it steady. Taking a deep breath she started to chop the onions. _How can _he _be here? _Him! _Of all the people it could've been. _Kaoru pushed the onions over to Amy, who put them into a frying pan with some butter, and started to chop the green and red bell peppers. _Does Ash know he hangs around here? I need to tell her...god, if she knew I'm going to kill her. _Kaoru finished the peppers and handed them to Amy. Amy poured them into the pan with the onions. Amy was concentrating hard as she put in some basil and oregano, and Kaoru could only watch with awe.

She was so fascinated with what Amy was doing that she didn't hear her speak. "I'm sorry?"

"I said to go find the white wine; it needs to be added next."

"Uh...okay." Kaoru ran across the kitchen and started raiding the cabinets. When she finally found the wine, she crossed the room back to Amy and asked, "What are you making anyway?"

"Italian sausage, peppers, and onions," she said as she put the sausage into the pan with the vegetables. "Hopefully this will be enough for everyone."

Kaoru eyed the pan, it was large, but not large enough, "Actually Amy...I don't think..." She stopped short when she noticed four similar pans behind Amy; all of the food was finished and smelled terrific. "Uh...when did that...never mind..." Knuckles walked into the room and snuck up behind Amy to sample some of the food. Kaoru looked at the ground and shoved her hands into the pockets of her hoodie. "Amy...I...uh...have to go find Ash...she's probably really hungry by now and I should make her something to eat..."

"Huh? Hungry? Kaoru, she's eaten everything in your house and you need to...where are you going? KAORU!" But Kaoru was already out the door. Amy turned her head slightly and caught sight of knuckles dipping his fingers into the pan for his third time. "KNUCKLES!" Amy pulled out her hammer and hit him with it.

* * *

Kaoru bounded through the front door of her house. "Ash!" She yelled in a sing-song voice. "Look what I've got!" From somewhere above her head she heard, "Is it food?" And Kaoru laughed, "Well of course it's food! Why would I tease you? Hurry and get down here." Kaoru shut the front door with her foot and walked into her small dining room and dropped the food onto the table. She walked into the kitchen and grabbed a few plates, and laughed as Ash scurried past her on her way back to the dining room.

"What'd you get, what'd you get?" Ash was hopping with anticipation and Kaoru laughed again.

"Follow your nose, come on..."

Ash followed Kaoru into the dining room and Kaoru pulled out a bunch of different foods and started serving. She made herself a small plate of imperial chicken and rice with peas. Then she continued to make five plates of various foods for Ash.

"Here you go, dig in..." Ash immediately started to eat all of the food in her sight, and smiling softly, Kaoru watched Ash as she too ate. After letting Ash eat for a few moments Kaoru bit her lip, "Ash...how often does Knuckles go by Tails's house?"

Ash stopped eating for a few moments, "Chuckles?" She shrugged, "He usually shows up looking for Sonic. He's probably there almost everyday, why?" Ash started to eat again, but quickly stopped when she saw Kaoru looking at her with the look of a scolded puppy. "Did you go to Tails's house today?" Kaoru nodded slightly. "Was Knuckles there?" Ash asked softly. Kaoru nodded again, feeling like a five year old telling her mommy that the kids at school were picking on her. Ash put down her food, wiped her hands on a nearby napkin, and walked around the table to Kaoru. Putting her arm over Kaoru's shoulder she said, "Don't worry about him, okay? That was so long ago, we were just kids..."

Kaoru sighed, Ash was right. "He still hates us though, how do you go over to Tails's house everyday and not notice how Knuckles looks at you?"

Ash laughed, "What? Like he's about to kill me? I find it funny that Snuckles holds a grudge. We were just kids. He needs to get over it like I did, and you do, too."

Kaoru loved the times like these, when Ash acts like a normal person, but she kind of hates it when Ash is right. "It's just hard to let that..." The front door opened, and Kaoru could hear footsteps in the front room. "Please don't tell Amy.." But Ash was already back to her side of the table, eating. Kaoru ate a few more bites of chicken and then pushed her plate to Ash's side of the table. "I'm going to bed, Ash..." Kaoru started to walk out of the room.

"Wait! Kaoru, did you get to talk to Shadow today?"

Kaoru thought for a moment and then shook her head. She had forgotten about Shadow.

* * *

**A/N **

**I only have four words to give you. **

**Squiggly, pumpkin, pleasey, and reviewy...**


	7. Kaoru's Past Part 1

Amy, Tails, and Sonic walked into Kaoru's living room the next morning after breakfast. Kaoru was sitting on the coffee table facing her lime-green couch. Sitting across from Kaoru was Cream and Cheese, both of whom kept giggling. Walking closer, Amy, Tails, and Sonic noticed that Kaoru was making a sort of Chao-ish sound, causing Cheese to giggle again and reply to her. Tails stood behind Kaoru and tapped her on the shoulder, causing her to jump up, whirl around, and grab his arm. It happened so quickly that Tails didn't have time to react because he never even saw it happen.

Kaoru looked into Tails's eyes and blushed, quickly dropping his arm. "Sorry...didn't realize it was you," she muttered, looking at the ground. She could feel everyone's eyes on her, watching her closely.

"Hey guys! Um...what's going on?" Ash said, as she came down the stairs, interrupting the awkward moment.

Amy looked up and glared at Ash, "Did you know Kaoru could speak Chao?"

Ash looked at Amy as if the answer was the most obvious thing in the world, "Well, yeah...English is her second language."

Amy, Tails, and Sonic looked at Kaoru surprise, but looking over, it was quite obvious that Cream and Cheese did not find this as new news. "Does that mean Chao is her first language?" Tails asked, tilting his head to the side.

Ash laughed, "Well...yeah...whenever I first met Kaoru, she was just learning English and it was real hard to understand her."

"Shut-up..." Kaoru muttered, so that only Ash could hear, though she didn't seem to.

"I helped teach her English, a bit. It was loads of fun, wasn't it Kaoru?"

Cream nodded, "Yeah, my mom helped her loads...isn't that right, Kaoru?" Cream looked up at Kaoru with huge eyes, and Kaoru nodded slightly, rubbing the top of Cream's head.

"But...wait," Amy said, "What do you mean 'met Kaoru', I thought Kaoru said you two grew up together...that both of your mother's were friends...and you grew up together..."

Ash tilted her head slightly, "Mothers? Neither Kaoru nor I..." but Kaoru shot Ash such a murderous look that Ash stopped short, flinching away from her.

But Kaoru's attempt was in vain because Cream said, "I've never met Kaoru's mom before, but I've known her for ages."

Kaoru knelt down in front of Cream and looked into her eyes. She took Cream's hands and said, "Cream, can you go watch TV upstairs?"

Cream looked hurt for a few seconds, but Cheese made a cheering noise then looked over at Kaoru and seemed to ask her a question. Kaoru gave a slight nod and, Cheese flew upstairs cheering again, Cream following close behind him.

Kaoru sighed and sat down on her couch, her large ears drooping slightly. She looked at the crowd around her and Sonic was the first to ask the question. "Where's your mom, Kaoru?"

Sighing, Kaoru flinched a bit and said, "I never knew either of my parents. I've been traveling alone most of my life." Something moved to Kaoru's left toward the kitchen, but she ignored it and continued, "I've been on my own since I was around 3."

"Who were you with before that?" Amy asked, sitting down next to Kaoru.

Ash started to laugh uncontrollably from near the stairs, and once again, Kaoru threw her a dark look, shutting Ash up instantly. Just then, there was a knock on the window, but only Kaoru seemed to take notice. Kaoru glanced over her shoulder and her eyes widened noticeably. She stood up and quickly walked over to Ash, ignoring the curious stares from the others. Kaoru leaned in close to Ash and whispered something in her ear. Ash jumped slightly, looking out the window. Ash nodded and scurried off.

Kaoru returned to her place on the couch, not mentioning what just happened, but before she could answer Amy's question, Sonic spoke. "Isn't it obvious who she was with...if Chao is her first language..." he broke off. Kaoru was nodding, but didn't seem to want to state the obvious.

"What about after you left?" Amy asked.

Kaoru shrugged, "I was alone until I was five, mostly just wandering. I don't remember much, being so young, but I do remember certain things. I was alone most of the time because not many people knew, or know, how to speak chao.

"When I was five, I was taken in by a family that had a few kids. They started to teach me English, but I didn't usually stay in the house. I was more of a visitor, and only went there to sleep at night. I usually continued wandering during the day or spent time with the couple next door which is how I met Vanilla. The family that took me in lived next door to her...in this house actually. The family moved away long ago and just kind of left this house. No one really knows what happened to them, but this house was up for grabs when I came around a few months ago, so I took it.

"Anyway, I spent a lot of time with Vanilla, she was really nice. She took care of me, especially when I didn't get along with the family I lived with...which was often. They didn't like that I roamed around and stayed out late, but they couldn't really stop me, I had already been on my own for so long. That's around the time I met Ash, but she lived rather far away from here. I saw her often, though. She didn't have many friends and she never spoke about why. We stayed in each other's company at least once or twice a week...until I left here.

"I left there when I was 8, right before Vanilla had Cream, but I visited often...both Vanilla and Ash. Ash and I have a sort of responsibility for each other, since each of us knows so much about the other...too much, maybe. And I helped take care of Cream when I was in town; she's kind of like my younger sister. I've been teaching her to speak Chao ever since she got Cheese..."

Amy cut in, "But there's still a six year gap...from the time you left Vanilla's house to the time you moved into this house."

"Just stop badgering her," said a voice from the left. "She obviously doesn't want to talk about it and frankly, I'm tired of hearing it."

Everyone turned to see Shadow leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, his eyes fixed upon Kaoru.

Amy frowned but didn't say anything. "So where did Ash go," Tails asked, mostly to break the silence.

Shadow chuckled, "I'm not sure Kaoru is at liberty to discuss that, so I suggest you don't ask that again." He chuckled again and walked out the door Ash had left through earlier.

Tails frowned after him, "What's _his_ problem?"

Kaoru didn't say anything and just let her eyes follow Shadow as he walked across her backyard. She didn't know whether to be relieved or scared.

* * *

**A/N**

**ooh...mystery...Part two won't be for another couple chapters. **

**Hoped you liked it. **

**Please review. **


	8. Challenged

A few days later, Amy and Kaoru had the house to themselves, because Ash had not yet returned from where she had disappeared to after the scene in the living room.

Amy piled Kaoru's plate with food, "We should enjoy this while it lasts. It's been nice being able to eat these last few days." Kaoru nodded and Amy continued, "So, where did Ash go?" Kaoru looked up at Amy and shook her head slightly, meaning she didn't want to talk about it. "Okay, fine," Amy said. "Then tell me a little more about when you were younger."

Kaoru opened her mouth to say something but the doorbell rang. "Be right back," she muttered as she walked out of the kitchen.

She opened the front door and there was a green chameleon standing before her, digging through a backpack hanging off her arm. "Just give me a second...um...ah yes! Got it." The Chameleon pulled her arm out of the backpack and pulled out a stack of papers. She was looking through them when she said, "Here take these." She took the first five papers off the stack and, without looking up, handed them to Kaoru, and then continued to shuffle through the papers.

Kaoru glanced down at them and her eyes widened, "Uh...AMY!" The Chameleon jumped from the sound of Kaoru's voice but seemed to be concentrating hard on the papers in her hands.

Amy walked up behind Kaoru and tapped her on her shoulder. "What's up?" She asked, nodding toward the chameleon. Kaoru handed Amy the papers in her hands without saying anything, and then continued to study the chameleon. She tried to catch her eyes, but her yellow horn prevented Kaoru from getting a good look. Amy glanced down at the papers in her hands and looked back up at Kaoru. "But I thought..."

Kaoru shrugged and continued looking at the chameleon.

"Okay...well...apparently I'm not going to find the paper in here," the chameleon said, looking up finally. "...Kaoru?"

"Yes?"

"No...You're Kaoru..."'

"...Yes, I am."

"Don't you remember me?"

Kaoru stared at the chameleon for a few seconds, staring into her purple eyes, before she remembered, "Carm?"

"Yes! Hi!"

"You two know each other?" Amy asked from the side.

Kaoru's ears twitched and she said, "Remember when I said I lived with a family in this house for a while? Carm is one of the children that lived here." Kaoru took the papers from Amy's hands and looked down at them again. She raised her eyebrows, "And apparently she is here to kick us out of this house..."

"I...well...you see...I have the deed...and the...I..." Carm stammered uneasily.

Kaoru raised her eyebrows and leaned against the doorframe crossing her arms.

"You see, you moved into this house without permission...and my mom still owns this house and it wasn't for sell..."

"Everyone thought your whole family died. You see, you guys haven't been around for years so they gave me the house for free."

"Yes...well...you see...I have a deed."

Kaoru nodded, "Ah, well yes, but seeing as how your mom was sort of my foster mother when I was younger, I'm sure she wouldn't have a problem letting me live here."

"Right well...Can I come in?" Kaoru and Amy stood aside as Carm walked into the house and took a seat on the couch. "The thing is...My mom found out someone was living here and she wanted me to make sure to it that they leave. We live far away from here, and I was planning to move back. I was going to live in this house, but seeing as how you live here. I can give you a week to move out."

"Carm, I live here. I just moved in, and I can't move out. I would have no where to go...Amy, Cream is upstairs. Can you make sure she doesn't come down?" Amy nodded and walked upstairs, "Follow me, Carm." Kaoru stood up and walked into the kitchen.

"What are we doing?"

"We were having breakfast before you interrupted. Please, have a seat. I'm sure there's plenty. Amy has been making a lot of extras in case Ash shows up. You remember Ash?" Kaoru made Carm a plate of food, pushed it towards her, and sat down.

"Yellow ferret that was a little...eccentric. Yeah...vaguely. Anyway, about the house...I don't want to kick you out, but I need a place to live and technically it _is_ my mother's house."

Kaoru nodded, "Hmmm, yes, well...you see, I have a lot of things that need tending here. Would it be too much to ask for you to just...find someplace else to live?"

"Yes...it's my house."

"Ah, I see how you would see that..." Kaoru finished her plate of food and looked over at Carm's still full plate. "Do you have a problem with the breakfast?"

Carm glanced down at the plate and winced. "I only eat things I cook. After eating my own recipes...nothing can quite compare."

"Huh...so you think you're a good cook."

Carm shook her head and wagged her finger. "No, I _know_ I'm a good cook."

"I see...AMY! CREAM! CAN YOU COME DOWN HERE?" Kaoru called upstairs, and then she added to Carm, "We'll see about that." A few seconds later Amy, Cream, and Cheese came into the room. Cream walked over to Kaoru and looked up at her. "Hello Cream, what would you like to eat today?"

Cream thought for a moment, "Um...Crepes!"

Kaoru smiled, "Good. Amy, Carm, we need to see who gets the house, and honestly I think there is only one way to settle this. We're going to have a cook-off. Amy and Carm, you're both going to make crepes. About let's say...five each, and Cream is going to be the judge. Whoever Cream picks as the better cook will get the house."

* * *

**a.n.**

**You see. Carm isn't like this in real life. This shows her as a lot more arrogant. But...no...this is how this has to go...in later chapters she'll be more like herself. This is just a bad situation. In later chapters, if she's in them, she'll be more like herself. **

**Read and review. **


	9. The Contest

"YAY!" Cream twirled with her hands in the air and skipped out the room.

"That doesn't seem fair," Carm stated. "Cream is on your side..."

Kaoru stuffed her hands in to the pockets of her hoodie and shrugged, "I'm sure I can keep her entertained long enough for you guys to make the crepes. Then both of you can kindly exit the room and me and her will walk back in, and then she'll choose. It's not rocket science. She's six; she'll be the best for the job. Younger kids have the best sweet teeth." Kaoru went around the kitchen and pulled out the basic ingredients for crepes. "Let's see...flour, eggs, milk, water, salt, and butter...All the ingredients for a basic crepe recipe. There's whipped cream and fruit in the refrigerator, chocolate and vanilla in the cabinet and since Ash has been gone the last few days anything else you may need is scattered around." A knock came from the front door. "Let's hope this isn't deja vu, shall we?" Kaoru left the other two in the kitchen and walked into the living room. "Why don't you two get started?" She called behind her.

Amy and Carm stared at each other for a few seconds. "Did I sign up for this?" Amy asked, talking to no one in particular.

Carm turned and looked around the kitchen. "So...where is everything?"

Kaoru opened the front door with Cream and Cheese close behind at her heels. "Hi Ms. Vanilla, are you here for Cream?"

"Yes, but I only need to take her away for a little while. She said she had wanted to help decorate the house."

"Oooh, what's the occasion?" Kaoru asked as Cream cheered and ran next door.

"No reason, Cream just wanted to decorate the house," Vanilla laughed.

Kaoru laughed back, "What better reason is there? I'd come help but we have a small situation here." The look on Vanilla's face caused Kaoru to add, "Oh, no worries. It should be cleared up soon. Hurry back, you may be able to help judge. If I remember correctly, things should be ready in about half and hour, give or take, of course."

Vanilla laughed again, "I'll try to hurry. We may need a break in half an hour anyway." Vanilla turned and walked across the yard, "Good luck?" She called curiously behind her. Kaoru watched Vanilla go into her house and turned to go back inside.

"Yo Kaoru!" someone yelled from behind her.

She turned back around and Sonic, Tails, and Shadow were walking into her yard. "Hey!" She called to them, and then stepped out of the way so they could enter. She caught Shadow's eye and turned her head away.

"How's Ash?" He sniggered.

Kaoru's eyes widened, "Did you tell anyone?"

"Humph," he said, crossing his arms. "It's none of my business."

Kaoru sighed in relief and followed the guys into the living room. "What brings you guys here?"

"Actually," Tails said, "we're looking for Ash. Is she around?"

Kaoru could hear Shadow snigger from behind her. "No, she isn't," Kaoru replied, ignoring Shadow. "What do you need?"

Tails shook is head. "I thought she...ah, never mind."

In the kitchen, Amy and Carm were both putting their mix on griddles. "Almost done?" Amy asked, trying to make conversation.

"Just about," Carm answered.

After about two minutes of silence Amy asked, "What brings you to town?"

"I just need to take care of some stuff here," Carm replied.

"Oh..." Amy took her crepe off the griddle and put it on a plate.

"I actually plan on moving here permanently...Does Kaoru realize that my family still owns the house and I don't even have to be participating in this contest."

"But don't you think it's better to just let the contest choose? It's more peaceful this way."

"I never said I was objecting, just proving a point."

Tails opened the door to let in Vanilla, Cream, and Cheese. "Hi everyone!" Cream yelled as she walked in, "Are the Crepes ready, Kaoru?"

Vanilla laughed, "Crepes?"

Kaoru nodded to Vanilla and then looked at Cream, "I'm sure they're almost done, I'll go check," she said, walking out of the room.

"Crepes?" Vanilla asked again. "I thought Kaoru said there was a situation..."

Sonic shrugged, "That's news to us."

Kaoru, Amy, and Carm walked into the living room. "Okay," Kaoru started. "Everything's done. Are you ready to judge, Cream?"

"YAY!" Cream ran into the kitchen.

"So, Kaoru," Tails said, "What's this situation?"

"Well..." Kaoru began to reply but was cut off when she heard Cream give a small gasp and start to cry.

Everyone ran into the kitchen and Ash was sitting on the counter, finishing off the last crepe. "THAT WAS DELICIOUS!" She yelled after the last bite.

"Oh no...ASH!" Kaoru yelled, stepping in front of her. "We needed those crepes!"

Amy put a hand on Kaoru's shoulder, "It's fine, Ash can judge..."

Kaoru nodded, "Fine, but can you make another for Cream? I promised her..."

Amy nodded, "I'm on it. Come, on Cream...Sonic would you like to help?" She asked sweetly.

A pained look shone across Sonic's face when he replied, "Sure."

"Okay Ash," Kaoru said, looking up at Ash. "Which crepes did you like better?"

Confusion rolled across Ash's features, "Which...what?"

Kaoru closed her eyes and put a finger to her temple. "The crepes...there was strawberry waffle crepes and blueberry pancake crepes. Which tasted better?"

Ash thought about this for a moment. "Um...THE CREPES!"

Kaoru ignored the sniggers from behind her. "No...You have to pick one."

"But...they all tasted so good," Ash said, widening her eyes to look sad.

"NO! Don't give me that look. That's the pathetic look you give me when I'm yelling at you and it makes me feel bad," Kaoru snapped.

"Good," Ash giggled.

Kaoru turned to look at Carm, "We obviously can't pick a winner, Carm."

"Don't worry...I have an idea," she replied.

* * *

**A/N**

**Sigh...Ash picked the worst time to come back, didn't she?**

**Please review. Or don't. Whatever. **


	10. An Explosion

Kaoru was sitting on Tails's couch staring into nothingness with a sour look on her face, and Ash was skipping and cheering behind her. Tails was sitting on the floor in front of Kaoru watching Ash with wide eyes and wondering if it was a good idea to let her back in his house. Shadow was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed; his eyes were focused intently on Kaoru.

"Uh...Kaoru," Tails said, still watching Ash, "it's not the worst thing in the world. You're still living in the house. Think of this as you getting a new housemate and..."

"There are only three bedrooms..." Kaoru muttered to herself.

Tails looked at Kaoru, startled, "Well yes. There are only three bedrooms, but..."

"Three bedrooms," Kaoru said looking down at Tails. "Three. One for me, one for Ash, and one for Amy. Perfect for the three of us. Carm doesn't need three bedrooms, yet she came to kick us out. Three bedrooms..." She continued muttering incoherently.

"Yes, but Kaoru you're still living in the house it's just..."

"And now she gets this insane idea that we should share the house. SHARE! I don't want to share the house with her. There are only three bedrooms."

"ASH WILL YOU STOP!" Shadow yelled from the corner, finally irritated with her insistent cheering.

Ash stopped and shrugged at Shadow and then sat down next to Tails with a huge smile on her face.

"Ash...exactly why are you so happy?" Tails asked, and he jumped slightly when he heard a low growl emit from Kaoru.

Ash seemed unfazed by the growl and said, "Since there aren't enough rooms for each of us. I get to move into Kaoru's room and be her roommate." Kaoru growled again. "I don't like living in houses much, but if I have to I guess sharing a room with Kaoru is best."

Kaoru seemed to be shaken awake by Ash's words, "...You don't like living in houses?"

Ash shook her head, "No, well, not real houses anyway. I prefer tree houses. They seem more freeing to me. Easier to come and go as I please if I live in one of those."

Kaoru smiled brightly. "Well Ash, why don't you build one in the backyard? There are TONS of trees around our house. There's that one huge tree back there that would be perfect."

Ash jumped up and started cheering again, "THAT'S A GREAT IDEA!"

Tails watched Ash for a few moments before he said, "Ash...why don't you go cheer in the backyard?" Ash ran out to the backyard, and everyone watched her run back and forth around the backyard for a few moments before Tail's said, "That fixes that problem..."

"I still don't want her in the house. Amy and I have a mission of...never mind," Kaoru finished as she stole a glance at Shadow, who raised his eyebrows. "The point is, how are we supposed to...succeed in our...mission if she is in the house."

"I think it would easier to give you advice if I knew what you were talking about," Tails said.

Kaoru closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "It's fine, don't worry about it." Kaoru got up and walked over to the window and leaned against the wall next to it. She stuffed her hands into the pockets of her hoodie and sighed, "Can we eat dinner here tonight?"

Tails got off the floor and kneeled on his couch, facing Kaoru. "No problem," he answered. "Actually, I think Amy already took over my kitchen," he laughed.

"Thanks." Kaoru turned and looked out the window. "Um...where's Ash?" Suddenly an explosion came from the kitchen and Amy screamed 'ASH!' as a loud crash was heard. Tails and Kaoru exchanged looks of horror.

"Oh yeah, Ash walked back inside a couple minutes ago," Shadow said. "I was going to tell you, but you were in the middle of a situation."

Tails narrowed his eyes at Shadow and followed Kaoru into the kitchen, immediately wishing he hadn't.

The kitchen was covered from floor to ceiling in dripping purple goop and hardened orange crystals. A fire was surrounding Amy and her hammer was out, raised high above her head. Standing next to her, Cream was close to tears and desperately trying to wipe the mess off of her dress.

Tails took a couple of steps toward Amy with his hand out, "Um...Amy?" But then Amy let out a scream so horrible that it caused him to he jump back. Amy ran out of the kitchen screaming, leaving behind a mess and a couple of confused friends. Tails looked questioningly at Kaoru, who shrugged.

Shadow walked in behind Kaoru and Tails and let out a low whistle, "What happened in here?"

"Cream?" Kaoru asked gently.

"Amy was cooking and Ash kept going behind her and adding a bunch of different things without Amy knowing. Ash added some sort of pepper to the food and everything exploded, and when Amy went to catch her Ash jumped out the window. Only the window was closed instead of open and it broke everywhere. As Ash was leaving she told Amy that Mr. Sonic said that Amy didn't season her food enough and that's why she was adding everything..."

Shadow let out a loud laugh behind Kaoru and she turned to look at him. "This is bad..."

Shadow looked into her eyes, his full of amusement, "How so?"

"Well, Amy is going to kill either Ash or Sonic. I'm sure it'll be whoever she comes across first."

Shadow pretended to think about his for a moment, "Hmm...Life without the annoying yellow ferret...or...life without the arrogant blue hedgehog...I don't see a down side." At this, Cream burst into tears and Kaoru glanced pleadingly at Shadow. "Fine, I'll help, but you owe me."

Kaoru nodded solemnly and Shadow jumped out the broken window. Kaoru stole a glance at Tails and he looked livid.

* * *

**A/N **

**I so didn't mean for the story to take this turn. But it did, and now it's stuck this way. **

**For some reason...I feel real bad for Ash. **

**And I don't think owing Shadow a favor is a spot Kaoru wants to be in. **

**And in case anyone is keeping count...Ash has broken Tails's Mecha, and his kitchen. Yeah...he's mad. Actually a poorly written chapter. But I can live with that...**

**Please review. **


	11. A Long Day

**a.n.**

**In case anyone was wondering. The only reason Shadow agreed to help Kaoru was because she gave him a really pathetic look while she was dealing with a crying child. Apparently he does have a soft side. And by 'helping' he is going to go look for both Sonic AND Ash while Kaoru tries to find Amy and calm her down. Dangerous work. Yes? And btw, Sonic DID NOT say anything about Amy's cooking, Ash lied about that...Okay. ON WITH THE SHOW! **

* * *

"Thanks Ms. Vanilla...We would've fed her dinner but...well...Cream will tell you what happened, and don't worry about the stuff on her dress. It'll come right out...I hope. And um...tell Cream we'll find Cheese as soon as possible. I'm sure he just got startled and flew off somewhere..." Kaoru continued to ramble on apologies to Vanilla who looked slightly entertained.

"Cheese will come back," Vanilla laughed. "Don't worry about it. Everything will be okay." Small tears welled into Kaoru's eyes and she hugged Vanilla tightly.

"Thank-you Ms. Vanilla," Kaoru said softly. She took a deep breath and blinked a few times. "Sayonara, Ms. Vanilla. Save me some dinner?" Vanilla nodded once and Kaoru ran down the driveway, waving.

* * *

Shadow was moving fast through the forest, mumbling to himself about the "stupid brown hare." He couldn't understand why he agreed to help her. When she was kneeling beside Cream and trying to soothe her and just looked up at him, one eye pleading and the other slightly hidden by her hair. She kind of reminded him of...no, he wouldn't go there. Shadow cleared his head of thoughts and stopped under the biggest tree he could find and looked up. Lying on a lone branch with her hands behind her head was Ash.

"You! Ferret!" Shadow yelled.

Ash peered over the side of the tree and looked down at Shadow, "Ooh, 'ello there, old one. How may I help you?"

"Get down here..."

"I am sorry sir, I absolutely cannot do that."

"Why not?" Shadow asked through gritted teeth.

"I have a mission."

"Lying in a tree is not a mission, ferret."

"Au contraire, my dear hedgehog."

"Don't call me 'my dear hedgehog.'"

"No, not YOUR dear hedgehog, MY dear hedgehog."

"JUST GET DOWN HERE!"

"I cannot do that."

"Oh for the love of..." Shadow jumped into the tree and threw Ash over his shoulder into a fireman's carry. He jumped down and started his search for Sonic with Ash pounding on his back and yelling every step of the way.

* * *

Kaoru walked back into Tails's house after dropping Cream off. "Hey Tails, any sign of Cheese, yet?"

"Well, no actually, but someone else has stopped by." Tails stepped out of the door way and tied to a chair was a furious and struggling Amy.

"Oh Amy..." Kaoru knelt in front of her and tried to catch her eye. "Ash was only joking, Amy...Sonic didn't really say that." Amy didn't respond and only glared furiously in the other direction. "I have good news for you...Ash is going to be moving into the backyard. She won't be in the house anymore."

Amy looked down at Kaoru and smiled a small smile, "That's good...That'll give us a break, but how can you just kick her out and make her sleep outside on the ground?"

"She won't be on the ground, Amy...she'll be in a tree house. Are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah...as long as Ash doesn't mess with my cooking anymore, it should be fine...Where'd Tails go?"

"Dunno...TAILS!"

"I'm in the kitchen!"

Kaoru untied Amy and they both walked into the kitchen, which was still covered in the mess from earlier. "How are you going to clean this up, Tails?"

"I'm sure it'll work if everyone helps out," Tails said. "But I guess we can leave it until tomorrow. This is too big of a mess and it's all dried anyway."

Kaoru's ears twitched upwards a bit, "Do you hear that?" Kaoru glanced around the room nervously.

Amy and Tails shook their head, "We don't hear anything."

Kaoru's ears twitched some more, "It sounds like someone screaming help." She paused to listen, "It's not English...sounds like...Chao!" Kaoru glanced up at the ceiling. "Oh! It's Cheese!"

Amy and Tails glanced upward. Cheese was stuck to the ceiling, all of his lower body trapped and covered by purple glue. His eyes were closed and he was yelling.

"Oh my..." Amy said, "How do we get him down?"

* * *

"And I think if I could just get past the Bridge of Awesomeness and climb down the Rope of Pwnage, than I can get to the Lake of Death and the big boss man with go down down." Shadow was ready to drop Ash on the side of the road. He still had her in a fireman's carry but she had stopped struggling and now was just hanging relaxed and casual, carrying on a one-sided conversation with Shadow about a brand new video game that she had bought and that she was absolutely positive she could beat Sonic at. She was planning to show it to him the next day and challenge him to a tournament. After that, Shadow had stopped listening and focused all of his energy into finding Sonic. After all, how much longer could this ferret actually keep talking? "After blueberry, I'd have to say that my favorite flavor of pie is pie flavored. It's very different from any other flavor and totally pwns over all of the other ones..." Shadow was having an increasingly difficult time blocking out Ash's voice. It was like an incessant buzzing noise that just wouldn't go away. "But after all of that math class, I finally realized that the pi they were talking about wasn't a pie at all. It was some number that is supposedly useful in society, but really, what's more important than food? Speaking of food..." Shadow had to clench his jaw to stop himself from yelling. "And then I realized that some sort of mold was growing on the bread of my sandwich." Shadow stopped dead in his tracks and threw Ash on the ground. "Wha?"

"Don't move," he said through gritted teeth, as he took off in another direction. Ash stood up and dusted herself off. Seconds later, Shadow returned with a struggling Sonic over his shoulder. "There, I did what Kaoru asked, I found you both. Now I'm leaving you. Take her, Sonic. She's driving me insane...She's your problem now."

Shadow took off and Sonic and Ash stared at each other for a few minutes. Ash shrugged, "I don't know what's wrong with him. I was just making friendly conversation."

* * *

Tails had set a ladder underneath Cheese and Kaoru had climbed swiftly to the top. "Don't worry, Cheese," she told him in Chao. "It won't be hard to get you down." She took a soft towel covered in soap and a squirt of bleach and dabbed the area around Cheese who was able to break free. "See?" she said. She tucked him into her arms and climbed down the ladder. "I'm going to leave now," she told Tails and Amy. "It's been a long day. I'm going to bring Cheese to Vanilla's, have some dinner, and then go home and to bed. Hopefully Shadow found Ash and Sonic already and is on his way to bringing him here. I'll be back tomorrow to help clean." Kaoru walked out the front door and sighed. It had been a long day indeed.


	12. Missing Mystery

The next morning, Kaoru was sitting at the desk in her room staring at the list of rules Amy had made her write to get Shadow. She sighed; they had gotten so off track. From outside Kaoru could here the banging and drilling of Ash making her tree house. Every time someone stepped foot out of the back door, Ash would start hurling things at whomever it was. She demanded that no one see the tree house until it was complete. Kaoru had enough bruises to discourage her from ever going into the backyard ever again. But...she can't possibly notice if Kaoru peeks out her window...can she? Kaoru looked up and pulled her black curtains out of the way of the window. She looked outside and her eyes widened. Apparently, Ash had become fed up with all of the people walking into the backyard, because the tree where she was building her tree house had a large tent surrounding it. There was a wooden sign on the tent and Kaoru squinted her eyes to read it, "Stay away or may you die in the great apple avalanche..." _"What?" _Kaoru thought to herself. She shook her head and looked away from the window. Maybe if she wrote something it would distract her. She opened the top drawer of her dresser, it was the smallest drawer and usually where she kept her pencils, ruler, and anything else that could fit, but this time it was completely empty.

Kaoru walked downstairs and saw Amy in the kitchen, "Did you see the tent Ash put up yet?" Amy asked without turning around, but nodding at the open window.

"Yeah, it's a little overboard" Kaoru answered as she sat down at the counter. "Would you happen to know where all my pencils and stuff went?"

Amy turned around to look at Kaoru. "I'm missing some stuff too. Look," Amy turned around and opened a cabinet, "the wooden chopping board is missing, and the shelves that were holding the books in my room are gone, too. All of my books were piled onto the floor. Where do you think its all going?"

"I dunno. It's weird though isn't it?"

"Yeah...I...BOKKUN!" Bokkun flew into the room through the window and started eating the apple pie that Amy had just set down to cool."

Bokkun's cheeks were full of pie, "I have a message."

"Sonic isn't here, Bokkun," Amy said, not noticing the nervous look on Kaoru's face.

He shook his head as he took another piece of pie, "Not for Sonic." Bokkun looked at Kaoru, "Ash, where is she?"

Kaoru made her face neutral and pointed outside, "She's under that tent somewhere, but you shouldn't go out there."

"YOU'RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME!" Bokkun yelled as he flew out the window, which Amy slammed behind him.

Kaoru shrugged, "His funeral." Just as she said it, a loud scream was heard outside and Bokkun slammed against the window. He slid down with a pained look on his face and disappeared out of sight. "Looks like you should have left that open," Kaoru said lightly.

"I didn't want him to come after the pie again. Do you think he's okay?" Amy opened the window and looked down at the ground. She shook her head, "He's gone."

"He'll be fine. I wonder if Ash got the message," Kaoru said before she could stop herself. The continued pounding outside answered her question with a no.

"What do you think Eggman wants with Ash anyway?"

Nervousness crossed Kaoru's features again before she could hide it. "I don't know. You know how Eggman is. Unpredictable and what not..." Kaoru trailed off knowing that she wasn't convincing, and shrugged, looking down. Amy stared at Kaoru curiously for a few seconds.

"I know you guys don't want me living here, but I didn't know you'd steal my stuff," Carm yelled from the living room.

"Looks like it's not just us," Kaoru said brightly, glad for the change in subject.

"We didn't steal your stuff," Amy yelled back. She waited for Carm to enter the kitchen before adding, "What's missing?"

"I brought a bunch of candles with me when I moved in. They're gone now. I figured since it smelt like apple pie in here, you two stole them."

"Amy actually made an apple pie," Kaoru snapped. "We don't need apple pie scented candles to make our house smell like apple pie. I'm sorry if your cooking smells so bad that you have to cover up the scent with candles."

"Look, I didn't mean..."

"I know what you meant," Kaoru said as she stood up and walked out of the kitchen.

There was an awkward silence in the kitchen before Amy asked, "Do you want a piece of pie?"

Carm looked at the pie for a few seconds before shaking her head. "I'll make my own later." She walked out of the kitchen and out the back yard with Amy watching her furiously. A few seconds later, Carm ran back into the house, screaming. Ash came in close at her heels and chased her out the front door. Amy watched as her fury faded, that was the best revenge she could've thought of.

Kaoru looked up from the magazine she was reading at her spot on the couch and raised her eyebrows at Ash. "You couldn't do that the first day she was here?" Kaoru asked, setting the magazine on the table.

Ash narrowed her eyes at Kaoru. "DON'T LET ANYONE GO BACK THERE!" Kaoru's eyes widened and she nodded. Ash stormed out of the door, slamming it behind her.

"Whoa," Kaoru said, looking at Amy. She looked down at the table in front of her, "Where's the magazine I was just reading?"

Amy looked at the table and shrugged, "Want something to eat?"

Kaoru shook her head, "We need to go help Tails clean up, remember?" She stood up and ran upstairs. Coming back down, Amy noticed that she had a notebook in her hand. "Well Amy, you coming?"

* * *

**A.N **

**Poor Carm, they all hate her so much. It's funny how they all just accepted the disappearing items so quickly. I guess they've seen weirder things. It saddens me to stop the chapter here. But I'm going to work on the next chapter right after this, so it'll be quick. Ash sure is getting obsessive with this tree house thing, isn't she? **

**Next chapter will be up really soon. **

**Have a nice day. Please review. **


	13. The Scrub Down

On the way to Tails's house, Kaoru made a list of everything that was missing and was surprised at just how long the list was.

"Cheese," Amy said.

"What? Cheese doesn't live at our house..." Kaoru looked around her to make sure Cheese wasn't flying around.

"No, the food. All the cheese from the refrigerator is missing. String cheese, cheese wheels, cheese cubes, cheese slices..." she counted off on she fingers. "It's all gone. Every single piece of cheese."

"Amy...That doesn't make any sense. Why would all the cheese just disappear from the refrigerator?"

"Why would any of our stuff just disappear? A glass jar."

"A what?"

"A glass jar...you know, like one of the ones I put sugar in. One of the ones with a screw on lid, the big one is missing, well...TAILS!" Tails was struggling to open his front door with his arms full of bags. Amy and Kaoru raced to help. "We'll take those," Amy said as she took the bags from Tails's arms and handed some to Kaoru. Kaoru was able to balance most of the bags from Tails in one arm. Tails opened his door and they entered the front hall.

"Thanks guys," Tails said. "You can just leave it all in the hall."

"What's in all those bags anyway?" Amy asked him.

"Cleaning supplies," Tails sighed. "It looks like we should've cleaned up last night. Look at this." Tails stood in the doorway of the kitchen and let them walk past him. The kitchen had formed a black and crimson layer of crust over everything that had been covered in the purple goop. "I've already tried to use water and bleach like you used yesterday to get Cheese down," Tails said to Kaoru, "but it won't work. So I went to the store to buy some more things to try. If all else fails, I'm sure I can make something that will work." Kaoru nodded absently and walked around the kitchen. "Kaoru?" Kaoru walked to the sink and put her hand out to touch the goop. "Kaoru! I wouldn't do that. There's this problem that..."

Kaoru touched the crusted over purple goop and it quickly spread all the up her arm and past her elbow. "Ugh! What the..."

Tails nodded, "Yeah...it does that. We realized that problem this morning." Tails went grab some gloves out of the grocery bags and handed a pair to Amy as soon as he pulled on his own. "But since it's a new spread, it will come out with water and bleach. Just try not to touch the stuff with your skin." He threw her a pair of gloves as she finished washing off her arm. "Considering that this has a technological quality to it...I'm starting to thing it wasn't Ash that set it off. That whoever did it should be considering it a lucky coincidence that she was tampering with the food. You don't think that Eggman would've sent someone to do it, would he stoop low enough to play pranks?"

Kaoru stopped dead in her tracks at these words. She closed her eyes and shook her head slightly. "Oh Ash..." she muttered quietly to herself."You're so close to getting yourself in trouble."

"He might if he's up to something. To throw us off track, you know?" Amy said, not hearing Kaoru. "It probably wouldn't hurt to check it out.

"I don't think we should," Kaoru heard herself say. Tails and Amy looked at her with curious glances. "I mean, Eggman wouldn't stoop to something petty like this, right? I'm sure Ash just threw something strange in there that is having some odd side effects."

From behind her, Kaoru heard a low chuckle and stiffened considerably. She felt breath on her ear and didn't turn her head, she knew who it was. "How long are you going to keep her secret for her?" The voice said.

Kaoru smiled a little and said, "You know, Shadow, I don't think she cares whether people know or not."

Shadow chuckled again, "But you care..."

"Shut up." She turned and glared at him. "Leave if you aren't going to help us clean up," she hissed through her teeth. Shadow looked at her with an amused expression and walked across the room to the bags of groceries. He watched her watch him as he pulled on a pair of gloves and grabbed the nearest tool. He smirked and walked over to where Tails and Amy were watching them awestruck. He leaned against the door frame and crossed his arms. Kaoru sighed and looked at Tails, "What's first?"

Tails pulled out a large jug. "This is the only thing I bought to try. It's bleach, highly concentrated. If this doesn't work, I don't think anything will, short of me making something myself." He pulled out another bag which was full of scrubbers and brushes of different shapes and sizes. "I guess we should get to work then." Tails poured the bleach into a bucket and dipped in his brush. The others followed suit and had the kitchen scrubbed clean in a matter of hours.

They moved to the living room and flopped exhausted onto the couch. "So much work," moaned Amy.

"Yeah, Tails replied."I have this new sealant that I made. I'm going to spray the kitchen with it so nothing like this happens again." He stood up and walked out of the room. Seconds later a strangled sound was heard. Amy and Kaoru ran out of the room and saw Tails frozen outside of the kitchen. They looked in and saw that the purple goop was starting to grow back. "I guess...if you leave a small bit...it grows back from there." Tails managed to say. "Looks like we are going to have to clean it again." Amy passed out onto the floor and from behind, Shadow chuckled.

* * *

**A/N**

**Truthfully...and I'm sure someone has noticed this...I have no idea what Tail's house looks like. I just made something up in my head. But hopefully we can all just be friends and not noticed that tiny little detail. **

**Have a good day. **

**Please review. **


	14. The Tree House

Kaoru sighed as she slid down into her desk chair. Cleaning the kitchen the second time had taken the last of her energy and she just wanted to sleep. She put feet up onto the desk and leaned back. Within seconds, she was swimming through the cotton candy ocean that was her dream. In what seemed like no time at all, the cotton candy turned into a merry-go-round that was spinning too fast and a loud voice from above was screaming at her. She was being shaken awake. "KAORU!"

"Ash..." Kaoru mumbled sleepily. "Stop..."

"You need to wake up...now!"

"Shouldn't you be building your tree house, Ash?" Kaoru muttered without opening her eyes.

"THAT'S WHY YOU NEED TO WAKE UP! I'M DONE!"

"Ash, contrary to what you may believe...I, and the others, don't exist to be your own personal toys and do whatever you ask of us," Kaoru said as she sat up and yawned.

"...You don't?" Kaoru narrowed her eyes to slits when she realized that Ash seemed genuinely confused and shocked by this statement.

"Ash...What do you want?"

"I finished my tree house! You have to come to the house warming party!"

"What? Party...Ash...I'm not ready to party," Kaoru yawned again. "Can't this wait until tonight?"

Ash's face went blank and she tilted her head, "It is tonight..." Kaoru's eyes widened and she whirled around to look out the window. Indeed, stars filled the sky, but she saw a curious bright light outside. Ash grabbed Kaoru's hand and pulled her out of the room. "Did you know that you snore?" Ash asked as they climbed down the stairs.

"I do not snore," Kaoru said stubbornly.

"Yes you do~" came a reply. "Also, did you know you smell like Japanese Cherry Blossoms?"

Kaoru smiled silently to herself, "Didn't I ever tell you how I got my name?"

Before Ash could answer, she pulled Kaoru in front of her and covered Kaoru's eyes with her hands. "Drum roll please!" Ash made an obnoxious sound with her mouth.

"What was that noise you were doing?"

"A drum roll..." Ash said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Huh. It sounded more like a helicopter..."

"YOU SOUND MORE LIKE A HELICOPTER!" She took her hands off of Kaoru's eyes.

"Whoa..." Kaoru was astonished. In her mind, Kaoru had seen a simple, little tree house, but this was for from it. Turning her head, she saw where the curious light had come from out of her window. "Ash...where'd did you get the Spot Light Robo?" Ash smiled brightly and pulled Kaoru into the yard to get a better look at the tree house.

The tree house was built around the tree instead of just poking out to one side. In fact, the tree seemed to go straight through the tree house. The front wall was painted to look like a beach sunset with a submarine window that was made to look like the sun. The door looked like an old classroom door, the number B146 was on a little brass plate near the top of the door. Next to the door was a large painted sunflower. The front wall was surrounded by a balcony made of broken, chipped wood and pieces of metal. On the side wall, was a window that had the glass punched out so that a large branch of the tree can reach through. The roof was a blue tarp tied down with a little string which gave the tree house the strange look of it wearing a hairnet. On the trunk of the tree were ladder steps, which were also made from broken and chipped pieces of wood that seemed to run up into the middle of the floor of the tree house.

Kaoru stared up at the balcony for a few seconds, "Are you sure that thing is sturdy?"

"OF COURSE IT IS! I BUILT IT MYSELF!" Ash screamed, though more out of excitement than anger.

Kaoru squinted up at the balcony and one of the pieces of wood caught her eye. "Ash...Is that my ruler?" Ash only laughed and Kaoru shook her head. "You're the one that has been stealing all our stuff, aren't you?"

"I have no idea what you are talking about."

Kaoru took a few steps back to get a better look and saw where all of the cheese mysteriously went to. "Um...Ash...Why is there cheese nailed to the tree?"

Ash laughed, "It's a cheese tree!"

"...It's an apple tree..."

"The apples aren't in season...but the cheese is~!"

"Right..." Kaoru said, "Well, how do we get inside? You don't have a ladder leading to the front door."

"We use the ladder on the trunk, silly."

Kaoru stared at it for a few seconds, "And what? Hit our heads on the bottom of the tree house?"

Ash pulled Kaoru by the arm, "Just come on."

They climbed the ladder which led to a trapdoor that would let them enter the tree house. Kaoru hesitated, "Does it open up or down?" She asked with one foot ready to step back down.

"Both," Ash pushed the door upwards and pulled herself through the hole. Kaoru counted to twenty and when Ash didn't fall through the floor she climbed in after her.

The first thing Kaoru noticed about the room was the tree trunk that cut through the center of the room. It came into the floor and straight through a large hole in the tarp. There were many branches coming out of the trunk and most went through smaller holes in the tarp. One branch had a few bandanas tied to it. "Ash, are those Amy's?" Ash muttered something in Italian that sounded like 'L'ho trovato' and Kaoru smiled, "You know, we speak about the same amount of languages... We've both spent most of lives traveling." Ash muttered something again and nodded toward the tree trunk. On the trunk there was a small sign that said 'chao crossing' and above the sign in the nook of the tree was a large glass jar with a chao egg. "Where did you get that?"

"I found it." Ash answered

Kaoru turned around and looked at a small table that held what looked like a bomb. "Uh...Ash, is that safe?"

Ash looked at the bomb and smiled, "That's something Bokkun brought me. It never blew up, so look at what I did to it." She turned it around and the front of the bomb had a clock on it. Kaoru also noticed that what she previously thought was a separate lamp, was actually connected to the bomb. She shook her head and looked around some more. There was a bookshelf with various random things on it and next to i, sat a soccer ball.

"Cream's?" Kaoru asked, raising her eyebrows. Ash muttered 'L'ho trovato' again as Kaoru continued to look around. The more and more she looked, the more things she noticed belonged to other people. "Ash..." Kaoru sighed shaking her head. Suddenly, she saw something sparkle in the corner of her eye. She turned her head to look and she saw one of the prettiest stained glass windows she had ever seen. "Where'd you steal this from?" Kaoru asked.

Ash laughed loudly, "I made it myself from a bunch of broken glass. Blow torches are our friends." Kaoru shook off the uneasy thought of Ash with a blow torch as Ash ran to the other side of the room and pointed at something. "Look at this," she ordered. Kaoru walked over to where she stood and stifled a laugh. There was a snail like creature with legs and a TV as its shell. "My favorite," Ash sighed as she petted it.

Kaoru took one more glance around the room crowded with different objects and strange things hanging from the ceiling and didn't bother to keep in her laugh this time. She threw herself back onto the hammock that stretched from the trunk of the tree to another wall and giggled to herself. "This is exactly the kind of place I'd expect you to live in."

"Huh?" Ash said absently as she walked to a wall full of shelves filled with candles and began to remove several red and black candles. Ash suddenly gasped loudly, went to the trapdoor, flung it open, and jumped through the whole. "I FORGOT SOMETHING!" She called over her shoulder as Kaoru stepped tentatively onto the balcony.

* * *

**A/N**

**Please enjoy**

**And review**

**and stuff...**


	15. Carm

Carm rushed into her room and locked the door behind her. She leaned against the door and sighed. It was hard living in this house. Yes, she has the same room she had when she lived here before, and yes, she agreed to this compromised living arrangement, but she was risking her life every time she stepped outside of her bedroom door. She couldn't eat anything anyone cooked in this house because she was sure that they poisoned it. I mean, none of them want her here, they would try to get rid of her any chance they got.

Carm pushed off of the door and went to her closet. She dug around some more for her candles. The others denied stealing them, but how do candles just get up and disappear? When she couldn't find them, she walked back to the door and made sure the baseball bat was still there. Yes, baseball bat. You can't be too careful in this house. There were three in her room, one by the door, one just on the inside of her closet, and one by her bed, just in case anyone tried to come in and smother and/or strangle her. Not only that, they would have to deal with her. She was a green belt in karate and could take down...most of them...she hoped...

She sat down at her desk and pulled the pepper spray out of her front pocket and the mace out of her back pocket. No matter which she had to use, she was ready. No one was going to get at her in this house. She shuffled through some papers at her desk and wondered when she was going to finally find what she came here to find. She picked up one of the papers and checked the area name. Yes, she was in the right place, but how was she going to find these people.

Carm wanted to have her own cooking show, she had gone to culinary school for five years to become the best she could be, but for her skills to be perfect she had to find this person...Unfortunately, Carm doesn't know her name. Carm only knows that everyone thinks her cooking is amazing and Carm would like to take a few tips from her, but since everyone here is out to get her, it's been hard for Carm to look for this person. The closest Carm came to anyone who can cook is Amy...it can't be Amy...can it? No, probably not. Well, not that Carm has had a chance to taste her food. "Goodness, I hope it's not Amy..." Carm mumbled. If it's Amy, Carm has a lot of explaining to do.

Carm shuffled through the papers again until she found another paper and she looked at the area name again. Yup, this person lived around here, too. Carm didn't know the name of this person, either, all she knew was that this person owned a TV station that would most likely add on Carm's cooking show. Carm sighed, "How am I going to find two people that I don't know?"

Two soft knocks came from outside and Carm jumped up and grabbed her pepper spray. She didn't say anything and after a minute, two more knocks were heard. "Carm? Are you in there?" The door opened and Carm sprayed.

Sonic fell to the floor, yelling and covering his eyes. Carm jumped passed him and ran down the stairs and out the back door. She stopped when she saw a bunch of mobians climbing up the ladder on the trunk and disappearing under the tree house, "What are they all doing?" Carm asked aloud but quickly got quiet as Ash walked backwards onto her balcony, laughing.

"You're telling me that you _forgot_ that everyone was inside our house and waiting for you?" Kaoru called from inside the tree house.

"I never said I was responsible!" Ash called back as she turned around. She was carrying a bunch of red and black candles in her arms. "Oh! Hey Carm! I was going to give these to you. I don't like the smell of licorice!" She started throwing the candles from the balcony and they started to rain down around Carm. Carm screamed loudly and ran back into the house.

"Two attacks in under five minutes. They're getting desperate." Carm burst into tears, "Why do they want to get rid of me so bad...The house! They want the house!" Carm stopped crying and looked around swiftly. "I can't stay here..." She patted her pockets to make sure the mace was there, "Good, I have to get out of here." She ran out of the front door and down the street glancing at the houses as she went.

Not far from her house, she saw a sign that said 'The House of Amy Rose.' She stared at it for a few moments. "If Amy is living in my house, then she isn't living here..." Carm stated the obvious aloud. She walked to the window and peered inside. Inside, it was completely dark. It was still furnished and full of Amy's things, but it definitely looked as if no one had been inside for a while. "As long as Amy lives in my house, I should be safe to live here, and I can pretend to live in my house so the others don't get suspicious and come looking for me." She nodded, "Yes, it's much safer this way.

She kept muttering, "Much safer...Much, much safer...no one can hurt me here..." as she walked back down the street back towards her house. "Much safer, yes, yes, much safer. Just need to go back and get some things. Much safer..."

When she got back to the house, she heard Sonic and Amy in the kitchen. "Here, put this towel over your eyes. What happened?" Amy asked him.

"I don't know. When I got back, everyone had left. I went upstairs to see if I could find you all, and knocked on Carm's door to see if she knew where everyone went. When I opened the door, she was sprayed me in the eyes." Sonic answered.

"Oh my...I worry about her. I'm not sure she eats enough...or if she eats at all, and I think she's..."

Carm stopped listening. "They lie...they know I'm listening. I know what they are up to...Much safer...Much safer if I get out...Yes, yes, much, much safer." Carm went into her room and stuffed all of her papers into her small suitcase, and then she walked over to her closet and took out a few changes of clothes. "Has to look like I still live here..." she mumbled. Then she went over to the door and picked up the baseball bat. "Only take one...only need one." She walked swiftly to her desk and yanked open the bottom drawer which was filled with tons of mace and pepper spray. Grabbing five of each, she threw them into the suitcase and slammed it shut. "Have to get out without being noticed...Much safer." She scrambled down the stairs just as Sonic and Amy walked out the back door. "Safer..."

* * *

**A.N. **

**So, I wrote this chapter to show that Carm isn't a witch, she's just paranoid. And she's driving herself to insanity. We'll see how that works out soon enough. **

**Have a good day. **

**Please review. **


	16. Truth or Dare

"YAY! House warming party!" Ash yelled when Amy and Sonic entered the tree house.

Amy and Sonic looked around the room, looking hopelessly for a place to sit. Shadow was leaning against the wall in a corner with his arms crossed sniggering at something. They followed his gaze and saw Kaoru sitting in the doorway to the balcony. She was pale and kept glancing nervously out of the corner of her eyes. Looking to see what she was glancing at, they saw that Knuckles was there sitting by the TV snail, having a conversation with Tails.

"Come on!" Ash hurried them impatiently, "Sit down!" She pushed them both into the hammock and sat down on the floor at their feet. "So." She smiled brightly. "Welcome to my home." Everyone stared at her but said nothing. "Okay! Game time! My favorite game in the whole widest world…Truth or dare! Any objections?" A few people opened their mouths to speak but she hurried on, "Right, first things first." She turned around slightly so she could look up at Sonic, "Sonic. Truth or dare?"

Sonic's eyes widened and he glanced around at everyone and when they only shrugged, he shook his head and said, "Truth."

"Great! I have the perfect one!" Ash stood up so she could look Sonic in the eye. She glared at him and touched her fingers lightly to his chest. "Tails and Shadow both have chest hair. Even knuckles has that little bleach spot, _(What?)_ so I have one question." There was a long pause and then in a high voice she screamed, "DO YOU WAX IT!" She rubbed her hand vigorously up and down his chest, "It's so smooth, you have to wax it!"

Amy jumped up from her spot and pulled Ash backwards, "Stop it! He does not wax it!" She yelled loudly. Then, so only Ash could hear she mumbled, "Get your own boyfriend."

Ash laughed to herself and sat back down on the floor, "Fine, then he doesn't wax it. Sonic, now you ask somebody."

"Kaoru," Sonic started, "truth or dare?"

Kaoru sighed, "Dare."

"I dare you get a blender, make a disgusting drink, and then give it to Carm to drink." Sonic smirked.

"Sonic, I'm not sure that's such a good idea." Amy began.

"No, I'll do it. She deserves it anyway coming here without warning just to kick us out. She could've at least sent us a letter before coming here. I'll go down to the house and-"

"NO NEED TO GO DOWN TO THE HOUSE! I HAVE A BLENDER RIGHT HERE!" Ash jumped up and dug through a hollowed out hole in the tree filled with random bits of nothingness and pulled out a blender. "Here you go." She ran over to a chest near Kaoru and opened it. "In here is anything you may need to make your drink." She ran back to her spot and sat down, watching Kaoru expectantly.

"Uh, okay?" Kaoru started digging through the chest and found small refrigerator department with milk in it. She poured some of it into the blender and then added hot sauce. Digging to the bottom of the chest, she found pepper and decided her drink probably needed it. Then she pulled out a small, plain black jar, "What's this?"

"Grape jelly."

"Sounds good to me." Kaoru shrugged and dumped the contents of the jar into the blender. She picked up a squirt bottle and smelled what was inside, "Mustard." She added it. On and on she went adding is sugar, seasoning, pickle juice, and, for good measure, a few strands of her hair. "Ha, hair from a hare. That's got to be poetry. Now, who is coming with me to deliver this?" Everyone stared silently at each other for a few seconds before Kaoru shrugged. "Fine, I'll just go myself. Someone hand it to me after I climb down." Kaoru flung open the trap door and climbed out of sight. Tails stood over the trap door and passed down the drink, and then everyone watched Kaoru walk away from the balcony. "Oh, wait!" Kaoru screamed over her shoulder. "Amy, truth or dare?"

"Dare!" Amy yelled back.

"I dare you to take your hammer to the tree house! Have fun everyone!" Kaoru waved over her shoulder as she ran into the house.

Amy skipped back into the tree house and grabbed her hammer. "NO!" Ash tackled Amy to the ground and tried to wrestle away Amy's hammer. "NOT MY TREE HOUSE! ANYTHING BUT THE TREE HOUSE! HIT KNUCKLES INSTEAD _(hey!)_ JUST NOT THE TREE HOUSE!"

"GET OFF! I WON'T HIT THE TREE HOUSE!" When Ash was sure Amy was telling the truth, she let her up and Amy patted her hair down. "Gosh. Um, Tails, truth or dare?"

"Dare!" Tails yelled enthusiastically.

Amy giggled, "I dare you to let Knuckles tie your tails together and keep it like that for a week."

"I'm not so sure about-" Tails began.

"I GOT IT!" Knuckles jumped up and quickly tied the two tails together into a big bow. Tails turned around a couple of times to try to get a look at his tails and blushed brightly. "Huh," Knuckles said. "Not as fun as tying shoelaces together, but it's still pretty funny."

Tails blush grew brighter and he turned to Ash, "Truth or Dare?"

"Hmmm, truth."

"Okay, Ash, who do you like?" Tails said.

"Me? I like everybody!" Ash said happily.

"No, no, no." Tails said as everyone stared at her in disbelief. "I mean, who do you like like, who do you love?" Ash opened her mouth, but no sound seem to come out. Her eyes widened and she stared blankly off into space. Tails waved a hand in front of her eyes and got no response. "I think she's in shock."

Ash fell to her knees and clasped her hands together. "DON'T MAKE ME ANSWER! I'M JUST A LITTLE GIRL! PLEASE PLEASE! I CAN'T!" Ash continued to plead incoherently while everyone stared at her. Tails's eyes widened and he took a few steps back.

"Um, Ash, don't worry about it. Just take your turn."

"YAY!" Ash jumped up and looked around. "Shadow! Truth or dare?"

Shadowed scoffed loudly, "Truth."

"Great! Shadow, tell me, what kind of curlers do you use in your hair?"

"Wha...I...what!" Shadow sputtered. He narrowed his eyes and glared at Ash who retreated back. "Are we really here just to play this stupid game?"

"Well, _we_ are here because this is a house warming party and we want to have fun. _You_ are here because your World of Warcraft account got deleted and now you have nothing to do with your life."

"Why you little..." Shadow pounced but ended up being blocked by Kaoru who looked shocked and out of breath. "Move," he told her.

"No. Leave Ash alone. Ash, stop picking on Shadow." Kaoru moved from in between them and leaned against the doorway to the balcony. She crossed her arms and glared at Ash and Shadow. "And in case anyone is wondering, I couldn't find Carm, so I left the drink on her desk."

Shadow moved back to his corner and crossed his arms to glare at Ash and Kaoru. After a moment, he smirked. "Okay, Ash. Truth or Dare."

"Truth," she said without hesitation, terrified to think of what Shadow would do if she said dare.

"Why don't you tell us where you randomly disappear to for days at a time?" He had directed the statement at Ash, but the whole time his eyes and smirk were directed at Kaoru, whose eyes widened noticeably.

"Oh! That's easy. I always go to..."

"NO!" Kaoru interrupted Ash loudly. She jumped towards Ash and covered Ash's mouth with her hand. Using her other hand, she pulled Ash out onto the balcony. "Are you insane?" she asked through her teeth.

"What? I don't care if they know. I mean, aren't I doing what Shadow used to do? They still love him!" Ash smiled broadly and then walked back inside, leaving Kaoru to curse silently to herself. "My turn again. Knuckles!"

"Dare." He said curtly.

"I dare you to let us tie dye your hair!"

"I refuse," he snapped.

"Because you're chicken? Hahaha, Chuckles is chicken!" Ash began rolling on the floor with laughter.

"I AM NOT CHICKEN!" Knuckles got up and walked forward angrily. He stopped in front of Ash and yelled, "TAKE IT BACK!"

"Um, Knuckles," Kaoru said, "You might not want to stand there."

_"What_?" Knuckles whirled around and began to step toward her, but before he could he fell through the floor. The trap door, which broken hinges caused it to open both ways, had fell open trying to support Knuckles.

Ash looked down and yelled, "Thank you! Come again soon!" She looked back up at the worried faces of everyone. "Since he left, I'll dare someone else. BOKKUN! Truth or dare?"

"Ash? Bokkun isn't..." Kaoru started.

"DARE!" Bokkun yelled from his spot, hanging on Kaoru's back. Kaoru peeled him off and dropped him unceremoniously onto the floor. "OW!"

"I dare you to put a bomb in Eggman's sandwich!" Ash laughed loudly. "Unless, you're chicken?"

"I'm on it!" Bokkun took off and left everyone staring after him.

"Why was he here?" Tails asked, looking up from the trap door. "Ash, I can fix this so that doesn't happen again."

"No, no need. It's perfectly fine. I find it very useful, and I think he was here to-"

"OH! Look at the time!" Kaoru shouted nervously looking at her watch-less wrist. "I think the party is over. We all need our rest for tomorrow. You know how things are." She started to mumble incoherently at everyone as she began to push people toward the trap door. Everyone was confused but obliged to Kaoru and left. After everyone was gone, Kaoru sighed loudly, "I need a nap."

* * *

**a/n**

**This took forever to write, and I didn't get to use all the dares I had planned, but this chapter was getting ridiculously long so I had to bring it to an end.**

**For more fun with Ash and the Sonic Characters playing truth or dare (But with a twist) Read AWriterThatCan'tSpell's Sonic Truth or Dare! **


	17. Ash: Part One

"I think your tree house is cool, Ash." Kaoru said as she yawned and leaned against the doorway on the balcony. "Good job."

"You really think so?" Ash looked up at Kaoru from her spot on the floor with huge, sensitive eyes.

Kaoru glared down at her, "What did I tell you about looking at me like that?"

"Um...Only do it when you're made at me because it makes you go easy on me?" Ash said softly with a look of false innocence.

Kaoru started rubbing her temples with her fingers. "No. That's not what I said at all." Kaoru sighed as her exhaustion started to hit her again. "Look, I have to get some sleep. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"Yes ma'am!" Ash half-saluted and smiled as Kaoru patted her head. "Good night, Kaoru!" Ash called after her from the balcony as she walked across the yard. Ash closed the door behind her as she walked into the tree house and dug around in the hole of the trunk, pulling out a large book. She started humming to herself and jumped onto the hammock. "Johnson stood over the body and dropped the knife onto the floor," she read aloud to herself, "'you were such a freaking idiot,' Johnson mumbled. 'I hope you rot in-"

"Twice!" Came a voice of angry annoyance from the other side of the door. Immediately, Ash squeaked loudly and jumped from the hammock, desperately trying to find a place to hide. _"Twice!"_ The door flew open and Ash dove under the hammock. "Twice I sent for you, and twice you didn't come!"

"I...well..." Ash stammered, wincing with every yell. "I just," she stopped talking when a banged and broken Bokkun landed in front of her. "Bokkun! Don't throw him!" Ash yelled at the figure in the doorway.

"What did you just say to me?" Eggman asked, bending over so his face could be seen in the doorway.

"I...Uh...Hello," Ash stood up and smiled widely. "How nice of you to stop by my new house. If you are here for the house warming party...You're late." She smiled innocently up at him.

Eggman narrowed his eyes and Ash flinched noticeably. "Twice I sent for you, and both times Bokkun came back without you. Explain. Now."

"Well, you see, I have this nice new tree house now and the first time Bokkun came, I was right in the middle of building it. So I had to politely decline your invitation to see me in order to finish building the tree house." Ash rambled loudly as she rubbed the back of her head nervously.

"POLITELY?" Bokkun yelled as he hovered by her head. "You threw me! AND I HIT A WINDOW!"

Ash stepped away from Bokkun to ignore him. "And the second time I was right in the middle of a party. I had all these guests here. I couldn't just leave them. They would destroy my new home. Earlier, Amy had her hammer out and everything and it was-"

"BE QUIET!" Eggman yelled as he rubbed his head. He reached through the doorway and lifted Ash up by the back of the shirt and held her in front of his face. "I didn't ask for your life story."

"But you told me to expla..."

"QUIET!" Ash squeaked as Eggman yelled. "Good, now, you're coming with me..." Eggman threw ash into a flying Robo that was hovering on the other side of the balcony wall. "BOKKUN! COME!"

"CLOSE THE DOOR BEHIND YOU!" Ash yelled as she sat up. "OH! Decoe, Bocoe..."

"We offered to come get you ourselves-" Decoe started.

"But he was really angry and decided to get you in person," Bocoe finished.

"I think he thought you wouldn't come if he didn't," Decoe said, putting his chin in his hand.

"Yeah, he was pissed when you didn't come back with Bokkun." Bocoe leaned close to Ash.

"What's so great about you?" They asked together.

"I happen to be a very important assest to Eggman's plans." Ash answered smugly. "I have traveled far and wide and I know many languages. I'm good at finding things, and I can fight."

Decoe and Bocoe laughed loudly. "Now tell us the truth."

Ash opened her mouth to answer that that was the truth when they landed at the base. Eggman glared at her and she shrunk back, her ears falling a little. He grabbed her by the back of her shirt again and carried her into the base with her yelling, "DON'T YOU MANHANDLE ME!"

Eggman rose his eyebrows at her as he dropped her into a chair. "Hungry?" He asked nonchalantly as he turned toward the refrigerator. "How about a sandwich?"

"My friends will know I'm missing..." Ash said stubbornly, crossing her arms.

Eggman laughed, "You go mysteriously missing for days at a time without warning plenty of times. What makes this time any different? You know, I could kidnap you for real and no one would bat an eye." He leaned in close to Ash and she swallowed loudly. "But why waste the time. I wouldn't want a certain blue hedgehog to decide to suspect me of kidnapping you. Especially since I'm not. _You_ work for _me_. It's not kidnapping at all, but I suspect no one knows you work for me yet, correct?" Ash shook her head. "Didn't think so. So it's perfectly rational for them to suspect...Never mind, it's not a problem. Now, why is it so _hard _to answer when I call for you?" Eggman stomped away from her and out of the room.

"It's not. Like I said, I was busy," Ash mumbled to herself. She looked around and stood up, "Humph." Ash walked out of the room and went into the direction Eggman had gone. "My friends would think to look for me...Right?"

* * *

**A.N. **

**Eggman is too big to fit in the treehouse. Teehee**

**Have any of you ever wondered what Ash looks like? Search AWriterThatCan'tSpell and Ash is her profile pic! **

**Have you ever wondered what Kaoru looks like? Sorry, no help there. Though many of you don't care. My Pen Name isn't "Kaoru" Because of my character or Vice Versa. The truth is, Kaoru the Hare's original name was Destiny (My real name) because my personal friend AWriterThatCan'tSpell drew ME in 'Sonic Style." But for the story...I didn't want her to be ME...I didn't want her to have my personality. She looks like me, but doesn't really act like me...I don't think so anyway. Kaoru was my nickname in Jr. High which I got after me and two of my friends became addicted to Powerpuff Girls Z. After that, we took their names and even started dressing with their colors, which I still like to do sometimes...I had gained Kaoru (the girl who transforms into Buttercup) and she's my profile pic. But my Hare got the name "Kaoru" because that's my go-to name. Originally, I was going to give her a different name, but she ended up with Kaoru because I didn't have the time to come up with a new one when I was ready to post the first chapter, so now she's stuck with it. **


	18. BunnyCopter

**Warning: Fluff Chapter...**

* * *

"And then you just-" Cream started flapping her ears and lifted into the air. "See? It's easy. Now you try."

"Cream, I don't know about this," Kaoru said nervously from where she was sitting on the ground.

"Come on, Kaoru!" Cream landed and ran over to Kaoru. "You have to try!" Cream grabbed Kaoru's arm and began to pull at it to try to get her to stand up while Cheese seemed to lecture Kaoru from behind Cream.

"I know, I know," Kaoru nodded, though it wasn't clear who she was talking to.

"You're a rabbit just like me, so I'm sure you can do it to," Cream urged.

"Yes, but your ears flop to the sides. Mine stand straight up." Kaoru tried to explain for the hundredth time.

"Just try it. Please!" Cream pulled at Kaoru's arm again and looked at Kaoru with huge, sad eyes.

Kaoru narrowed her eyes, "Ash taught you that, didn't she?" Kaoru sighed and stood up. "Fine, I'll give it a try." Kaoru stood up while Cream and Cheese cheered. "Now, what do you want me to do?"

Cream stepped in front of Kaoru and started to flap her ears. "Easy," Cream smiled.

"Yeah, okay." Kaoru curled her hands into fists and placed her hands on her hips. She stood still for a few seconds and could only manage to make her ears twitch.

Cream watched Kaoru's ears with anticipation. "Try again." Kaoru's ears twitched again, but this time Cream flinched, assuming it was out of irritation. "No good?" She asked quietly.

"No, I told you that this wouldn't..."

"KAORU!" Tails yelled as he ran up behind Cream. "Have you seen Ash?"

"Ash? No, she wasn't at her tree house this morning or in the kitchen. She probably went for a walk or something. Do you need something from her? Did she take something?"

"Huh? No. I just wanted to ask her something. It can wait. What are you guys doing?"

"We're flying!" Cream yelled happily as she rose into the air again. When she landed she said, "But Kaoru is having a little bit of trouble." Kaoru smiled weakly at Tails and shrugged her shoulders.

"It's easy, Kaoru." Tails laughed, "Show me what you can do."

Kaoru sighed again and tried to relax as she concentrated on flopping her ears. "Nothing," she said after about a minute.

"Kneel down, Kaoru," Cream said as she skipped over to Kaoru, who did what Cream said. Cream stepped up behind Kaoru and took Kaoru's ears in her hands. She began to make Kaoru's ears move up and down. Kaoru winced slightly but chose not to say anything. "Now you try," Cream commanded as she stepped away.

Standing up again, Kaoru stared at the sky, willing something to happen. When nothing did, she sighed and her ear twitched anxiously. "Wait, Kaoru," Tails said as he watched her ears, "can you do that purposely?"

Kaoru reached up and touched her ear, "This? It's just a tick triggered by..."

"But can you do it purposely?" Tails pressed.

"I don't know. I guess."

"Well try it."

Kaoru stared at the sky and concentrated on her ears. After a few seconds they twitched. "Yeah, I can do it."

"Good, now try this." Tails started twirling his tails around to show her what he meant. "If you can do that, try this." He made his tails pick up speed and rose up into the air. He stood back up after landing and gestured for Kaoru to try it.

Kaoru concentrated on Tails as she made them twitch, then slowly she began to revolve them. "Like this?" When she got used to moving her ears in that fashion, she sped up and continued to work like this until her ears were a blur and she began to hover off the ground. Startled, she gasped and dropped to the ground.

"That was great, Kaoru!" Cream cheered. "Well, up until you fell," Cream giggled.

"I was surprised, that's all! I've never flown before!" Kaoru desperately tried to defend herself.

"Let's see how long you can hover. Now that you know what's going to happen," Tails said happily.

"Yes sir!" Kaoru concentrated and began to hover again. After a minute or so she landed softly and smiled happily. "That's great."

"Now see if you can move instead of just hovering, Kaoru!" Cream yelled excitedly.

Kaoru nodded and started to fly again. She leaned forward a bit and began to move. She smiled widely and then yelled, "You two come up with me!" Soon, Tails, Kaoru, and Cream were flying around Cream's backyard turning small tricks, and trying to see who can stay up the longest. Kaoru fell to the ground a couple of times, but soon got the hang of flying and landing.

"Cream! Dinner time!" Vanilla called. When she noticed Tails and Kaoru she asked, "Staying for dinner?"

Tails glanced down at his watch, "Not tonight, Vanilla. I have tons to do. Let me know when you find Ash, Kaoru."

Kaoru nodded to him and he turned away as Kaoru answered Vanilla, "I'll stay for some of your delicious dinner, Ms. Vanilla."

"Excellent, see if your friends would like some dinner, too." Vanilla returned indoors and Kaoru ran home to see if she could find Ash and Amy.

* * *

**A.n.**

**Well, that was fun, no? Hope you enjoyed this chapter. **

**Have a good day and please review. **


	19. Ash: Part Two

"I can't believe he thinks he can just keep my hostage here." Ash grumbled to herself as she crawled through the tiny tunnel that was the air vents. "I'll show him, I know this place inside and out."

Bokkun popped up in front of Ash's face and screamed, "HI!"

"BOKKUN!" Ash jumped, "DON'T DO THAT!"

"Sorry," Bokkun laughed. "Eggman wanted me to ask you how you liked your new collar."

Ash's fingers touched the metal collar around her neck lightly. She tapped her finger one the red, blinking light and shrugged, "It's fine. I don't understand why he gave it to me though."

Bokkun let out a loud, slightly hysterical laugh. "You'll find out eventually." He looked around and laughed again, "Have fun."

Ash shook her head as she watched him fly away down the tunnel. She continued to crawl through the vents and eventually ran into a dead end. "Here we go," she mumbled to herself. Using a screwdriver she dismantled the metal wall. Once the wall was gone, the vent opened up to the outdoors. She smiled and jumped out of the building.

Suddenly, she was jolted by a large shock and then found herself standing behind Eggman. "What...I...What?" Ash stammered loudly.

"You've only just arrived here a few hours ago, and you're trying to leave already?" Eggman said without turning around.

"I don't..."

"The collar. When you try the leave the base, you will receive a shock and then will be teleported directly to me."

"So I'm just stuck here?" Ash's eyes widened as she thought about her new lack of freedom.

"No, I can turn it off whenever I need you to do something for me, or when I'm ready to allow you to go home."

"My friends will come looking for me!" Ash screamed loudly. She turned and ran from the room and through the base. This time she decided to use the front door. She threw it open and stepped outside only to once again receive a shock and end up behind Eggman.

This time, Eggman turned around and raised his eyebrows at her. "Don't you think that...?"

"I WILL NOT LOSE!" Ash ran out of the room again and ran to the roof. She jumped into a flying robo and flew away from the base, laughing loudly. She was only able to get a few yards away before the shock hit her and she landed in front of Dr. Eggman.

Eggman was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. "Are you done?"

"NO!"

Ash ran out of the room and Eggman sighed loudly. "Decoe! Bocoe!"

"Yes sir?"

"Go outside and clean up the flying Robo she crashed, and try to keep her from crashing another."

Seconds later Ash appeared in front of Eggman again. He raised his eyebrows and she sighed, tears filling her eyes. "I'm done," she said quietly as she rubbed her neck under the collar.

"Good, now it's time to get started with the serious work."

Ash stood up and placed her fingers on her chin. She nodded and said, "Yes, Yes, Yes. Now, when you say, "Serious"..."

"I mean that you are going to have to actually do work this time," Eggman said as he narrowed his eyes at her.

"I ALWAYS DO ACTUAL WORK!"

"No, you don't. For example, where's the chaos emerald I told you to find?"

Ash started laughing maniacally. "It's in my tree house!"

"It's in your tree house?" Eggman lifted his hand up to his head and rubbed his temples.

"Yeah, it's in the hole in the trunk. But you pulled me out of there so fast I wasn't able to get it for you. Just turn off the collar and I'll go get it for you." Ash turned and started to walk away, "You know, you and Kaoru both rub your temples like that all the time. What's up with that?"

Ash stopped at the door when Eggman said, "I'm not going to turn it off. There's plenty of work that can be done without the chaos emerald."

"Oh yeah? Like what?" Ash crossed her arms and challenged him with her eyes.

"Well," Eggman reached behind him and handed Ash a small TV, "first, I need you to bring this to Bokkun." He turned grabbed a sticky note and a pen and then wrote down Vector's name. He stuck it to the top of the TV as he said, "Then I need you to help Decoe and Bocoe repair the flyer you destroyed. We aren't going to get anything done without that flyer. After you're done with that, you can come back and I'm sure I'll be able to find something else for you to do." Eggman laughed loudly and turned back to his work.

Ash smiled mischievously, "Don't worry Eggman; I'm sure I can help..."

Eggman cut her off, "And fix it right." The tone of his voice caused Ash to flinch noticeably.

"Fine," She marched out of the room and rolled her eyes. "Never get to do anything fun around here anymore. He thinks he can just..."

"Oh and Ash..." Eggman said, stepping into the hall.

"Hmmmm?" Ash turned around to face him.

"Hurry. We have a lot of stuff to do," he walked back into the room laughing loudly.

Ash stuck her tongue out after him and grumbled about not getting her sandwich as she turned around to look for Bokkun.

* * *

**A/N**

**Sorry for another complete fluff chapter, but this is the last you'll see of Ash for a while. So everyone, say bye-bye. As you can see, Ash has a lot of work to do.**


	20. Carm: Part Two

Carm was sitting in the middle of the floor of Amy Rose's kitchen humming Yankee Doodle to herself. In front of her was a big pile of paper that had been ripped to shreds. Every few seconds, she would pick up a piece of the paper and place it on her tongue. She'd leave it there for a few seconds and then remove it and put it on the pile behind her. She continued this for a few minutes before standing up and walking over to the kitchen the table, now humming Oh Susanna!

On the table was another pile of shredded paper. Carm sat down on the chair and picked up a piece of paper, studying it for a moment. She placed it back on the pile of papers and dropped her chin to the table and blew all of the papers across the table.

"Ahh, bed." Carm climbed up on the table and laid down on her back. "Lullaby and goodnight, and there are more words I'm not sure of," Carm sang to herself. "Lullaby and goodnight, and no one can harm me while I'm hiding out here. Lullaby and goodnight and yes, they are all out to get me. Lullaby and good night and no, I don't think they'll find me..."

Carm rolled over onto her side and stared at the window for a few seconds before jumping up and running to the window to throw open the curtains. She stared blankly at the trees around the house before shoving the curtains closed again. "Someone could've seen me. Yes, seen me...Right...Seen me...Have to hide."

Carm dropped to her knees and crawled across the floor. She slumped herself under the table and curled up into the fetal position. "We're no strangers to hiding. You know the rules and so do I. A new identity's what I'm thinking of. You wouldn't get this from any chameleon. I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling. Gotta make you understand. Never gonna see you again. Never gonna bring harm to me. Never gonna walk into this house. Never gonna find me here. Never gonna harm me bad. Never gonna find me under this table..." Carm fell asleep under the table, her bad tune ringing through her head, as the sun began to rise.

Carm woke up somewhere around noontime and crawled out from under the table. She kicked her piles of papers around the floor as she passed and did her new morning ritual of checking all the rooms before going on with her day. She looked behind every door and checked inside all of the cabinets. If anyone got into the house, she wanted to know about it before they got to her.

Once she was done checking around the house, she went into the kitchen and cooked herself a small breakfast. She hummed quietly to herself as she made pancakes and sat at the table. Instead of eating, she just stared at the window and tapped her fork incessantly. When her hand started to get tired, she sighed and walked over to the window, peeking out.

Everything seemed to look normal, but her skin still crawled as she watched the clouds pass overhead. What if they were sitting on a cloud, looking down at her? They probably know exactly where she is. What is Amy comes by here? Why isn't Amy living in her house anyway? Kaoru and Amy are achieving nothing.

"I need to leave this house. They'll find me here. Amy is bound to come back eventually." Carm snapped the curtain shut and began mumbling to herself. "Going to find me...Need to leave...What if...No, no...Never do...Oh no..."

She ran around the house cleaning everything up. She threw away her uneaten pancakes, and swept up the shredded paper. She washed and dried all of the dishes she had used and then packed up the small amount of things she had brought with her to Amy's house. "Got to get out of here..."

Carm ran out the front door and down the small path from Amy's house. Instead of taking the road, she dashed between trees and tried her best to stay out of sight. Carm continued to look over her shoulder and kept her hearing sharp the whole time she ran.

As the sun began set, Carm slowed down and looked around. She was deep in the forest, but the trees were still thin enough to see a long way. She kept walking until she came to a hollowed out hole at the base of the trunk of a tree. She shoved her little bag of her things into the tree and then curled up around it. She would sleep until dark and then wake with the sun. She'll cover a lot more ground that way.

Carm closed her eyes and breathed in deep. Maybe she'd just stay there instead. What are the odds that someone would find her in a tree trunk in the middle of the forest? Yes, she'll just stay there. No one will ever find her, and that's all that was on her mind as she drifted off to sleep.

* * *

**A.N.**

**You've been rickroll'd...well, sorta. My thought process went something like this. "Gee, what's an annoying song that just about everyone knows? ...Oh yeah." Then I change the lyrics to psycho chick lyrics and badda boom badda bing! Here we are. **

**Follow me and my stories at twitter dot com /BookwormKaoru**


	21. To Tails's House

**A.N. I made a twitter account for my fanfiction readers to chat with me. Or check up on how stories are going. Follow me, yes? Why did I do this? Idk, I was bored. But it'll be fun, maybe. Maybe I can make friends with some of my readers. So...here's the thingy. Twitter dot com /BookwormKaoru. Let's see how this works out. :) **

* * *

"I think it's finally gotten peaceful enough around here to get the reason I've moved in," Amy laughed as she sat down to eat dinner with Kaoru.

Kaoru shrugged, "I guess. I'm starting to rethink all of this a bit though. I know I didn't know him much before I moved in here, but I think he really hates me."

"Ha! Of course not, that's just how boys are. That's why Sonic always runs away from me."

"Are you sure?" Kaoru asked skeptically.

"Of course," Amy replied enthusiastically. "That's why you asked me for help, right? You know how much of an expert I am and came for professional help."

"Actually, you kind of just said you would help me yourself..."

"But you didn't argue! And that's why I moved in, to help you get the full effect!" Amy smiled widely at Kaoru and then glanced down at her plate. "Where is Ash anyway?"

Kaoru shrugged, "I don't know, I guess she went on a trip. She likes to travel, you know."

"Sure, yeah. I guess I'm just not used to having food around," Amy laughed. "So, what's first on the agenda?"

"Well, I..."

"I think the first thing you should do is have a normal conversation with Shadow. Have you done that yet?"

"Well, you see, the thing is...Shadow doesn't exactly..."

"Of course you haven't!" Amy interrupted Kaoru. "What we need to do is find him and see if you can get him to talk to you."

"Well, I've talked to him, but..."

"And then once we get him to talk to you, we can move on to bigger and better things!"

* * *

About two hours later, Kaoru and Amy were walking up towards the house of Miles Prower.

"Look, I get why you want me to do this, I just don't understand how this is going to help me get Shadow to..." Kaoru started, her ears twitching anxiously.

"Don't worry! Just follow my advice and everything will be fine," Amy stepped forward and knocked on Tails's front door as Kaoru waited anxiously behind her.

Tails opened the door and smiled widely, "Hey Amy, what's up?"

"Well, Kaoru and I just wanted to come and see if Shadow was here."

A confused look crossed Tails's face and he shook his head slightly, "Kaoru?"

Amy smiled, "Yeah Kaor..." Amy cut herself off when she turned around and saw that Kaoru wasn't standing behind her. "She was just here a second ago."

"Amy, are you feeling okay?" Tails asked her, his voice full of concern.

"I feel fine, I just...Where could she have gone? She was with me the whole time." Amy took a couple of steps away from the door and glanced around the yard. She put one hand on her hip and the other shaded her eyes away from the sun. "She couldn't have gotten far. She was just here."

Tails took a step toward Amy, "Maybe you should come inside, Amy. I think the sun may be too hot for you."

"What? No! I'm telling you she was right..." Amy turned back around to face Tails and a huge smile appeared on her face. "Aha! There she is!"

Tails turned around to see what Amy was pointing at and sure enough, Kaoru was hovering above the doorway and trying to build up enough courage to get onto the roof.

"When did she learn to fly?" Amy asked.

"Cream and I taught her yesterday. Why is she hovering over my door?"

"I think she just has cold feet," Amy said to Tails. Then, to Kaoru, she yelled, "Kaoru! Get down here! We are on a mission, remember?"

"NO!" Kaoru yelled over her shoulder, finally stepping onto the roof and crouching low to steady herself.

"I swear she only gets nervous around..." Amy glanced at Tails and cut herself off, "Nevermind. Kaoru! Let's go!"

"Want me to get her?" Tails asked, starting to hover over Amy's head.

"No, I'll get her," Amy said in a sugary sweet voice. Suddenly, Amy burst into flames, pulled out her hammer, and shrieked, "KAORU!" Amy began to run towards the house, ready to jump up onto the roof.

"AMY! Not my house!" Tails ran after her.

"NO! NO! Stop! I'll come down!" Kaoru jumped off the roof and slowly lowered herself onto the ground in front of Amy and Tails.

"Will you stop messing around?" Amy scolded her. "This was your idea in the first place."

Kaoru's ears twitched, "No it wasn't!"

Tails shifted his weight from one foot onto the other, "Didn't you two have a reason for coming here? Something about Shadow? Were you two looking for him? He's inside somewhere. You're welcome to come in." Tails turned away from the girls and walked inside.

"That's right, now let's get to work." Amy smiled widely and skipped toward the door.

* * *

**A.A.N. No, that is not a typo. It says "Another Author's Note." **

**Why is that when someone is in the heat and they start to talk a little weird, it's always "the sun getting to them" Psh. Yeah, right. **

**Please review and have a nice day...night...thing. **


	22. Altercation with Shadow

Kaoru slowly followed Amy through the door, dreading the altercation that she knew was coming. She tried to think of ways to avoid going anywhere near Shadow. After all of the problems that she has had with him lately, she definitely didn't want to go anywhere near him. Why was he blackmailing her? Ash doesn't care if anyone knows where she disappears to all the time, why should she? There had to be the way out.

"Kaoru? What's keeping you? Hurry up!" Amy rushed Kaoru into the kitchen.

"Amy, I still don't think that-"

"Shadow! Are you around here!" Amy yelled into the air, her voice carrying around the house.

"Amy!" Kaoru jumped out of her chair and covered Amy's mouth with her hand. "Shh!" Kaoru's ear twitched and she listened intently. When she decided that Shadow wasn't coming, she released Amy and sighed. "I'll look for him myself. You should go hang out with Tails. If I need your help, I'll find you."

Amy laughed and winked at Kaoru, "Ooh, I get it. Okay, I'll go talk to Tails." Amy winked again and left the kitchen.

Kaoru watched Amy walk away and slumped down in the nearest chair once she was out of sight. All she had to do was buy some time and then go find Amy and say she couldn't find Shadow. Yes, that'll do it.

"What was all of that about?"

Kaoru squeaked loudly and fell out of her chair. She quickly dusted herself off and stood up to face Shadow, who was snickering loudly.

"I see you aren't always on your toes with your martial arts training, are you?"

"I was just lost in thought, that's all." She patted her hair into place and crossed her arms, glaring at Shadow. "What do you want?"

"I've already answered that, haven't I? What was that little scene between you and Amy about?" Shadow's voice had a hint of humor behind it, as if he was secretely laughing at a joke only he had heard.

Kaoru laughed nervously and rubbed the back of her neck. "You know Amy, always coming up with crazy ideas and what not."

"Is that so?" Shadow snickered again.

"Yes, it is so."

"I see." Shadow took a step toward her and put his hand under her chin. He moved his face close to Kaoru's. "And what exactly is this crazy idea that she has come up with?"

Kaoru didn't answer. She could barely breathe. Her eyes had widened to the size of frisbees and her body had entered panic mode. She couldn't process anything. All she knew was that Shadow was scary up close.

After a few seconds, Shadow smirked and stepped back. "You still owe me a favor, hare."

Kaoru exhaled slowly. "Yes, I do."

"Good, don't forget it." Shadow stepped around Kaoru and walked out of the kitchen in the direction of the living room.

Kaoru slumped into the chair she was in previously and closed her eyes. She wasn't sure whether she liked being in debt to Shadow.

"How'd it go?" Amy asked excitedly, running back into the kitchen.

Kaoru smiled brightly, "It went great," she lied. "I think he's really starting to like me.

"I knew it! You were worred about nothing." Amy laughed quietly and patted Kaoru on the back.

"Yeah," Kaoru laughed nervously. "What was I thinking?"

"That's probably it. You were just overthinking it." Amy smiled, satisfied.

"Hi pot. I'm the kettle." Kaoru said sarcastically.

"Huh?"

"Nothing." Kaoru sighed. She knew that none of this was going to work.

"Would you like to stay for dinner? You can sit next to Shadow and bond." Amy smiled widely. "I'll go ask Tails."

"Wait. What?" Kaoru asked as Amy ran out of the room. She sighed deeply. "Great. What a wonderful plan."

* * *

**A/N**

**Contrary to popular belief. I haven't just been not writing all summer. I have been doing quite a lot. I went through this whole story and fixed all the typos I found. And rewrote some of it so that it made more sense. And I edited a lot as a favor to dyslexic-carmie. So I have been doing quite a lot. Now that school has started, I should be updating more often. YAY! School! **

**The chapter is kind of short, but no worries, the next one promises to be longer. **

**Sorry for the delay. **

**Please review. **


	23. Dinner

Kaoru couldn't believe that Amy had actually put nametags in front of all the chairs so that everyone would sit in the "correct" place.

Kaoru and Shadow were sitting next to each other. Shadow seemed to be enjoying himself while Kaoru just looked miserable. She had tried to put up a fight when she had first walked into the kitchen and noticed the table, but Amy wouldn't have any of it. She said that Kaoru was "just nervous" and would "enjoy herself once everyone has started eating." She wasn't enjoying herself at all. She was staring at her food and wishing it would all just disappear so that she could leave the table. She looked up at Amy, who was sitting across from her.

Amy had naturally placed herself next to Sonic, who was across from Shadow, and she was rambling about how much she wanted to go to a beach. Sonic seemed to be ignoring her and was talking to Tails, who was seated next to him at the head of the table.

Kaoru sighed loudly and wished that Cream was there so that she could have someone to talk to.

"Lost in thought again?" Shadow snickered.

"Maybe," Kaoru said indignantly.

Shadow chuckled quietly, "I have something to tell you."

"And what would that be."

"I know how you are going to pay me back for going on that wild goose chase," he whispered so that only Kaoru could here.

Kaoru stiffened, "And how is that?"

"I'm not going to tell you that just yet. Not here anyway. Meet me in two days in the woods by your house. I'll tell you there, where no one would be able to overhear."

Kaoru was already starting to feel scared. She didn't like the idea of meeting Shadow alone in the woods. He doesn't like her, at all. He pretty much hates her. What if he tries to kill her? No one would know. Kaoru's eyes had grown wide. She looked away from Shadow and back at Amy, who was looking at her. Amy smiled and gave her an OK sign with her fingers before turning back to Sonic.

Shadow watched the slight exchange between Kaoru and Amy and smirked to himself. He could practically feel the fear eminating from Kaoru. He finished off his food quickly and left the table looking satisfied.

Once he was gone, Amy took her food and sat down next to Kaoru. "You guys looked like you were having a great conversation."

Kaoru wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. Amy certainly didn't know how to read the atmosphere. She couldn't really be that thick, could she? How could she possibly think that the conversation looked like it was going well?

"Sonic looks like he misses me," oh yeah, maybe like that. "Eat up, it looks like you've barely eaten anything." Amy moved back to the other side of the table and started rambling about the beach again.

Kaoru picked at her curry a little, but didn't really eat much. She was too worried to really eat anything. It seems that she got herself into quite a bit of a problem. As she took another bite of food, she wished that Ash were there to finish her food off. Or to act as back up when she went into the woods with Shadow.

Kaoru smiled suddenly when she realized that was exactly what she was going to have to do. She has to find Ash. And she has two days to do it. She'll find Ash, and Ash can follow her into the woods. Then, if Shadow tries to kill her, Ash can be there to save her. That's a perfect plan.

Kaoru's ear twitched when she thought about having to find Ash. She knew where to start, but that doesn't mean she was particularly fond of Eggman. She really didn't want to go anywhere near his base.

This was going to take some intense planning. She took a few more bites of food before jumping up from the table. "I need to go, Amy. I just remembered that I have something to do. I don't want to be late. I might be away for a few days so don't wait up."

Amy nodded, "That's fine. I'll just stay at my own house then. If I do that, I can grab a few things and it'll give Carm the place to herself. Just stop by when you get back. And I'll head back over."

Carm. Kaoru had forgotten about Carm. Hopefully she won't take over the house while she's away. She'll just have to trust her for now. There isn't enough time for Kaoru to do something about her. "Okay, no problem," Kaoru called as she left the kitchen. She'll have to find Ash as soon as possible if she wants to keep Carm from taking over the house.

As soon as Kaoru was out of the house, she started running.

* * *

**A/N**

**And that...is how that is going to work. **

**Next chapter will be posted sometime this week. **

**How you enjoyed this chapter. **

**Have a good day and please review. **


	24. Mystery

Amy sighed as she dropped her bag on the floor in front of her couch. It had been a long day and Sonic had run off before Amy could ask him if he would help pack her things so she could go back home for a while.

It was late and she went to get a glass of water to bring with her to bed when she looked down into the garbage to see a bunch of paper.

"What the?"

She lifted up the small trash can and poured the contents on the table. There was nothing there but little pieces of paper. She glanced over her shoulder and looked around the room. Nothing else seemed to be out of place. There were no dishes in the sink, nothing on the floor, no evidence that anything was out of place, and yet there was paper in the garbage can.

Amy pulled out her hammer and tiptoed into her living room. "Ash?" She called out. She walked around her whole house, checking behind every door and looking under her bed. "Ash? If you've been living here I'm not angry! Just stop messing with me before I do become angry!" After no response she yelled, "There's no food here!" When there's was still no response she put her hammer down and placed her hands on her hips.

"What is going on here?"

* * *

It toook Kaoru most of the night to reach Eggman's place and she wasn't exactly happy about being there. She tried to avoid Eggman as much as she could especially since she thought that Ash was there enough for the both of them. After the run in with Eggman years ago, she could barely bring herself come out from the tree was hiding behind.

"Put one foot in front of the other and soon you'll be walking 'cross the floor. Put one foot in front of the other, and soon you'll be walking out the door," she sang quietly to herself as she walk up to the door.

She stared at the door for a long time, "Should I knock? Is Eggman going to answer?" Kaoru chewed on her lower lip.

"Kaoru?"

Kaoru turned around and saw Decoe standing behind her.

"What are you doing here?"

"Well...You see...I've sort've..." Kaoru stammered, not knowing how to explain herself. In the past, Decoe was the only person from Eggman's base that she really got along with, so she tended to favor him over everyone there.

Decoe tilted his head to the side, "Ash?"

Kaoru only nodded. Being so close to Eggman's base made her nervous, but if Decoe could tell her where Ash was, she could get over it long enough to go in, get Ash, and get out of there.

"She's on the top floor, on the landing pad. She wrecked a flying robo and she's still trying to put it together. I came out here to see if their were any parts left."

Kaoru smiled, "Thank you!" She took off running into the base.

"Wait! There's something you should know!" Decoe called after her, but she ignored him and kept running.

* * *

Amy sat at her kitchen table and glanced out her window. She was so positive that someone had been inside her house. Why else would their be torn up papers in her trash can? Who just tears up papers anyway? That seems to be a bit of a waste. Taking a sip of hot cocoa, she glanced out her window again, smiling when she saw someone approaching her front door.

She raced to her front door and opened it before the person could knock.

"Hello ma'am," Charmy the Bee saluted."Did you called for the Chaotix Detective Agency?" he asked, hovering in her doorway.

"Hello Charmy, yes I did. I also called for Sonic, but it seems as if the most famous person on Mobius is hiding tonight. Are you the only one coming?" She asked as she glanced around him and squinted into the darkness.

"Yes ma'am. Vector told me to come and take notes. He'll be here tomorrow to look for clues, and then we'll be able to track down exactly who was in your house." Charmy was acting surprisingly calmer than he normally did and for this Amy was thankful.

So where exactly do you start?" She asked him.

"Why don't you start with telling me what happened?" Charmy said as he took out an official looking notebook.

* * *

Tails walked into his living room and jumped. "What are you doing here?" he asked Sonic.

"Amy's looking for me," he yawned. "I didn't want to risk staying outside where she could find me."

"You don't think she'll look for you here?" Tails rubbed his eyes.

"Nah, and if she does, she'll probably look for me on the roof. There's no way she would come in here."

"What if she was in some sort of danger?"

Sonic shook his head, "I can usually instictively tell when someone needs my help."

Tails was quiet for a few moments. "You do show up at just the right moment a lot," he nodded.

"Told you."

* * *

**A/N**

**Sorry, I took so long to update this. I've been editing stories for my friend Dyslexic-Carmie a lot. We just finished the Nation Of Oz which is a Wizard of Oz parody featuring the hetalia characters. **

**This story should be updated next weekend if not sooner, I know what I want to happen but I didn't want it to be this chapter, so I added in the Chaotix and Sonic section on a whim. The Chaotix section gives me a great idea, so no worries there. Sonic Products should be updated tomorrow. And Raising Kaoru and A Strange Dream will be updated soon. **

**Any other stories added to my list along the way (I have two ideas) will be updated mostly regularly. **

**Have a good day and please review. **


	25. Testing the Anger Limit

"Ash! What are you doing?" Eggman yelled when he found Ash curled up under a desk.

"Sleeping," Ash answered without opening her eyes.

Eggman's face became red with rage. "You are _the laziest_ of all of the people that work for me! Why do I keep you around!"

Ash opening her eyes and sat up, stretching. "I think it's because you think I'm adorable," Ash smiled.

"Definitely not," Eggman narrowed his eyes.

She rolled her eyes and stood up. "I'm obviously not going to get any sleep around here." She smiled sweetly and patted Eggman's stomach. "Calm your eggrolls, Fatman. I know why you keep me around. It's because when I _do_ happen to do work, I work hard and actually get some things done. Important things, might I add. So you can't actually get rid of me." She winked, "Besides, you don't want to get rid of me, do you?"

Eggman thought for a second and smiled, bending over to look Ash in the eye. He leaned in close to her face and smiled, causing her heart to beat fast with panic. She obviously pushed him too far and she had to hold her breath to stop from hyperventilating. "Actually," he breathed, "yes. I _do _want to get rid of you." He stood up and walked a few steps away. Ash exhaled, suddenly wishing she had decided to sleep in any other room. "_However,_" he added, "you _do _get the work done...When it pleases you. So tell me, what would you like to do?" He turned to face her.

"Go home?" she looked up at him hopefully.

"What _work_ would you like to do?" he amended.

"Well...I...volunteer to make sandwiches! I'm starving," her stomach growled loudly, proving her statement true.

Eggman nodded, "That will do, _for now_. Make one for everyone. _One_." He turned from her, "Go."

* * *

"And that's how I _know _someone was in my house," Amy concluded after telling Charmy the story of how she had been gone and her return home.

"That's not really much to go on," Charmy said, looking up from his notepad.

"But you guys can figure this out, right?" Amy asked. "Just because I haven't noticed that anything is missing yet, doesn't mean there isn't something missing."

"Oh! No worries, Miss Amy! I was just making a comment. Chaotix is the best detective agency there is! Of course we can figure it out!" he reassured her.

"Great!" She smiled. "So now what do we do?"

"Well," Charmy said, closing the notepad. "I'm going to leave and we'll be done for the night. Tomorrow, Vector will come over and look for anything else suspicious. For now, it's probably best if you stayed somewhere else, but I'm not going to say you have to. If you do stay here, try not to move too many things around. Vector will want to see everything as it was found."

"Of course," Amy nodded. "I guess I can go back to Kaoru's...No. Carm needs the house to herself. I'll go to Tails's house. What time should I be here to let Vector in?"

"You can just leave the key with me and he can let himself in," Charmy answered.

"Of course," Amy went over to the counter to get the spare key.

* * *

Kaoru was standing on the roof, looking at the ocean. She didn't find Ash on the top floor and she had to step outside. Where could Ash be? Kaoru sighed and thought for a few moments. Facepalming, she rolled her eyes. The kitchen! Why wouldn't Ash be in the kitchen?

It took her about ten minutes to remember where the kitchen was and another ten to build up the courage to actually go back into the base.

Kaoru peeked into the kitchen and rolled her eyes when she saw that Ash was buliding a very large sandwich, four smaller sandwiches were sitting on the table. As Kaoru moved closer she heard Ash muttering, "I'll show him one sandwich. I can get around any of his rules. Just you just wait and see."

"Ash!" Kaoru whispered loudly, causing Ash to jump and whirl around quickly.

"Kaoru!" she yelled, throwing her arms tightly around the hare. "I'm so glad you're here! You have no idea what kind of week I've been having! It's awful! I just..."

"Shh!" Kaoru hissed. "Someone willl hear you. Now come on! We have to go!" Kaoru pulled her by the hand and down a flight of stairs.

"Wait! Kaoru!" Ash pleaded. "My sandwich!"

"Hush!" Kaoru said over her shoulder. "We have to go! And what's with the collar? Someone might see us coming down the hallway because of that stupid blinking light."

Ash stopped short and her hand flew up to her neck. "Wait Kaoru! I have to..."

"Ash! We don't have time for this! My life can be in danger! Let's go right now!" Kaoru pulled Ash to the front door and flung it open.

"But you don't understand! I..." a shock went through Ash as the passed over the threshold and she disappeared.

Kaoru looked down at her hand and up to where Ash had been a few seconds before. "What the? Ash! I don't know how you learned that tricked but I'm so gonna hurt you!" she screeched, before running back inside.

* * *

**a/n**

**I wonder how many more times I can hurt Ash before people get tired of it...**

**Reviews take 30 seconds but make my whole day! **


	26. Pain And Sandwiches

Ash landed on her knees on the kitchen floor. Eggman looked down at her from his spot at the table.

He shook his head. "Ash, I thought you had finished trying to escape," he sighed. Ash just sat shaking on the floor. "Ah, I forgive you," he reached down and patted the top of her head. "How can't I after you made me this fabulous sandwich? I'm so glad you remembered I liked sandwiches with multiple layers."

Ash's head snapped up. "You...you ate the big sandwich?" she asked, her mouth going dry.

"Of course I did! You know how much I love big sandwiches." He patted her head again. "You're completely forgiven for going to sleep when you should've been working. Now, go eat your sandwich and then come find me so you can tell me what else you are willing to do."

Ash crawled her way over to the table and looked at the one lone sandwich that was left. She turned her head and stared at the refrigerator, regretting using everything that was left in there for the giant sandwich. She sat at the table and nibbled on her food.

"You seriously did that little disappearing act so you could come eat that little sandwich? How could you have possibly...Ash. We have to go. Come on!" Kaoru pulled at Ash again, the sandwich dropped to the plate on the table and was left behind.

"Kaoru! I haven't eaten since I've gotten here," Ash complained.

"Then you can wait just a little while longer. You have to understand...Shadow..."

"This whole thing is about Shadow? Kaoru! Can't your crush wait until after I get some food in my system?" Ash asked sternly.

"This isn't about a crush! And weren't you supposed to get rid of that collar?" Kaoru asked, walking out the door.

"Oh! Kaoru! Wait!" Ash disappeared as a shock went through her.

Kaoru stared behind her. "I swear to Zeus! Ash if you went to finish that sandwich!"

* * *

Eggman jumped back as Ash landed on the robo he was working on. He lifted his eyebrows, "Did we not just go over this, Ash?"

Ash pulled herself up onto her knees. "It just seems to be the fastest way to find you, sir," she said through coughs that shook her shoulders.

"Sir?" Eggman placed a hand under Ash's chin and checked her eyes with a flashlight. He lifted a tape recorder to his lips. "Shock collar seems to train wearer. Must remember to check for any unforeseen adverse effects." He paused for a moment. "And remember to check for health issues. Tests came back inconclusive."

"Health issues?" Ash asked weakly.

"No worries, of course." He lifted her off of the Robo and set her own the floor, going back to work. "It's just that I didn't have time to run the proper tests on the collar before going find you. I'm a very busy man, Ash. I happen to be a genius, you know."

"I have a question about the collar," Ash coughed again.

"No, I will not turn it off."

"That's not it," Ash defended herself.

"Hmmm?"

"Do the shocks get worse the more I try to escape?"

Eggman stopped working and wrote something down on a piece of paper. "Interesting idea." He pulled out his tape recorder and spoke into it. "Run tests to see if the shocks get worse as time passes without desired results." He pocketed the tape recorder and went back to work. "It may just be that your resistance is failing. Instead of building up a resistance, your losing yours when it comes to the shock collar."

"So either way it's going to feel worse?"

"That's correct."

* * *

Amy knocked on the door to Tails's house. She heard a lot of laughter coming from inside and opened the door herself.

She stepped into the living room and saw Tails and Sonic playing video games.

"Hello," she said. Tails waved, but Sonic jumped up and backed against the wall. "Tails, can I stay here tonight?" she asked, ignoring Sonic.

Tails nodded. "Sure, no problem," he answered without looking up.

"Thank you," she bowed her head slightly and turned to go to Tails's extra room.

Sonic jogged slowly after her. "Hey Amy," he said.

Amy leaned against the door frame of the guest room. "Hello," she nodded.

"What was it that you needed me for earlier?" he asked.

She turned away and entered the room. "Don't worry about it. Chaotix has it under control," she said over her shoulder before closing the door.

Sonic stared at the door. "Chaotix?" He shuffled his feet back to the living room. "I could probably figure out whatever it is better than they can," he muttered.

Tails looked up at him. "Huh?"

"Nothing. Amy just acted...weird. Why wouldn't she tell me what she needed?"

Tails shrugged. "Should've gone when she called.

* * *

**A/N**

**Aw. Kaoru is angry, Ash is scarred for life, and Sonic cares. You never know what's going to happen...**

**Reviews take 30 seconds but make my whole day. **


	27. Freedom

Kaoru was dragging Ash down the stairs by her shirt. Ash seemed to have given up her fight and was just letting herself be dragged across the floor. On the first floor Kaoru pulled Ash into a closet.

"Talk," Kaoru said, crossing her arms.

Ash sighed and rolled her eyes. "It's about time!" She reached up and touched the collar around her neck. "You see this? Eggman put this on my neck, because he's some kind of sadistic monster getting some sort of weird pleasure out of this."

"I don't understand," Kaoru told her.

"HE WON'T LET ME LEAVE!" She screamed, pulling her ears down. "DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND THAT! THIS STUPID LIITTLE SADISTIC COLLAR SHOCKS ME WHENEVER I STEP A SINGLE FOOT OUT OF THIS BUILDING AND THEN IT TRANSPORTS ME STRAIGHT TO HIM!"

Kaoru stared down at Ash. "So does that mean that if he was out of the building and you were here and you tried to leave that you would get shocked, go directly to him, and since he isn't even in the building you would still be out of the building so the collar would perpetually shock you and teleport you in different spots around him until both of you return to the base?"

Ash's eyes widened. "I don't want to test that theory."

"I do," Kaoru smiled.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" Ash yelled.

"We can test it on something else, later. Right now I need to know if there is a way for you to leave without getting shocked."

"There's an off-switch somewhere." Suddenly Ash's face lit up and she smiled widely. "I have a different idea, though! Be right back! Stay right here!"

Ash ran out of the room and Kaoru slid down the wall to sit. She has been in the base too long and it was affecting her mind. Still, she couldn't help but laugh when she thought about how she didn't listen to Ash before.

"I'm ba-ack!" Ash said, running into the rum wearing a fake mustache and a turban. She was trying to fix a clip-on tie onto her shirt.

"What do you think you are doing?" Kaoru asked.

"I'm putting on a disguise, silly!" Ash laughed.

"I don't understand why," Kaoru said after a pause.

"It's so obvious! If I put on a disguise then the collar won't recognize me and I can get out safely! I have no idea why I didn't think of this before!"

Kaoru rubbed her temple with her fingers, "I can think of a perfectly good reason why you didn't think of it before. It's not going to work."

"Of course it will!" Ash said loudly, a huge smile on her face.

Kaoru sighed and stood up. "Fine, let's go." When Ash got shocked she would just have to go on without her. She really didn't have time to argue. The hare slowly opened the closet door and look around. Once she was sure no one was around, she pulled Ash down the hallway. They made it to the door in no time, but Kaoru stopped before opening it. "Are you sure you wanna?"

"Yes! Now!" Ash pushed in front of Kaoru and threw open the door, running down the steps. A part of Kaoru knew she shouldn't have been surprised that Ash's stupid disguise idea would work, but it still nearly knocked her off her feet.

* * *

"Ash!" Eggman yelled loudly through the base.

"She's not here," Decoe said in a bored tone.

"What!" Eggman grabbed Decoe and got right in his face. "What. Do you mean. She isn't here!"

"She walked out of here about an hour ago!" Decoe said, obviously frightened.

"How did she get out?" Eggman said through clenched teeth.

"She put on a disguise and just walked out!"

"She...What?" Eggman refused to believe that he heard what he just heard.

"She put on a mustache and a few other things and tricked the collar! She just walked out the front door!"

Eggman dropped Decoe on the floor with a surprised expression on his face. He walked over to his desk, clearly shocked, and sat down, putting on finger on his temple. "A disguise?" He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I don't... I don't even understand how that would be a malfunction... How is that a plausible... That can't be possible... I just don't... What?"

Decoe put a hand over Eggman's. "Don't worry about it, sir. Ash's mind just works differently than yours. Of course she would be the one to find a way out of your punishment."

"Decoe, you really aren't helping."

"Sorry! Just think of it this way. The second she takes off the disguise, the second she'll be right back here next to you. In the meantime, you can create a collar where this won't be a problem." Decoe walked out of the room.

"Right," Eggman smiled. "She can't wear that disguise forever."

* * *

"Do you think you can do something about it?" Kaoru asked Tails.

"I suppose I can, but I don't really understand how Ash ended up with something like this in the first place." Ash was lying on a table in front of him as he examined the collar around her neck.

"That's not really that important. She just...ran into trouble while she was traveling. It actually happens quite often," Kaoru explained. "And, um, Tails, do you think you can have it figured out in, say, an hour?"

Tails looked up at her. "Do you two have somewhere to be?"

"Yes..." Kaoru said slowly.

"No problem. I actually think I can have it taken care of...Done." Tails pulled of the collar and handed it to Kaoru.

"Yes!" Ash said, sitting up and rubbing her neck. She pulled off her disguise and crumbled it up in her hand.

"I still don't understand why she was dressed like..."

"It's a long story. Can you do me a favor?" Kaoru asked him.

"Yeah, sure."

"I'd like to do some tests on this thing, but like I said, we have somewhere to go." She handed the collar back to Tails. "I think this collar was an invention of Eggman's. And it was obviously meant for Ash. This probably means that there is something on the inside that shows the assignment. Is there a way you can change it from Eggman to me and from Ash to...well, anything."

"I guess I can take a look. When do you want it back?"

"Well, I think...As soon as I get back? A couple days, I guess?"

Tails shrugged, "I can do that."

"Thanks bunches!" Kaoru hugged him. "Come on, Ash. Let's go!" Kaoru grabbed Ash's hand and pulled her down the driveway.

"But...I haven't eaten yet!"


	28. One Answer and More Questions

Kaoru was running as fast as she could move her feet, but she couldn't help but feel that she wasn't going to make it on time. She felt like the farther she ran the longer the distance she had to travel was.

Quite a long distance behind her, Ash was jogging slowly and eating a sandwich.

Kaoru stopped, putting her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath. "Can't you keep up?" she yelled between breaths.

"Can't you run slower?" Ash yelled back.

"Don't you understand what's going on?" Kaoru screamed at her.

"Actually, no," Ash caught up to her. "You never did explain what we were running to."

"That's not the point! The point is that you should be sympathetic when my life is so obviously in danger!"

Ash lifted an eyebrow. "I see no obvious signs that your life is in danger. In fact the only danger to your life right now is your stress level. Your blood pressure must be through the roof. You should sit for a few minutes and catch your breath."

"We don't have time to catch our breath! According to my wrist we only have four hours to get to the forest!"

"Then the least you can do is run slower. We can walk from here and be there in a little over an hour." She sat on the ground and took out another sandwich. "Which means we also have time to take a break. Now," she patted her shoulder, "tell daddy Ash all about it."

* * *

Carm sat up quickly and looked around. She was very unkempt and dirty, but that was the least of her worries. The past few days in the forest had helped her further develop her sense of hearing so she could make sure she was safe and alone.

The current problem she had was that she thought she heard someone approaching, but as she listened she couldn't pick up anything. Crawling out of her hole, her eyes darted around, making sure there was no real threat.

It took a few minutes, but satisfied, she finally crawled back into the trunk of the tree and went to sleep.

* * *

"Actually, Amy," Vector told her on the phone, "it wasn't that hard to figure out. Your closet was full of her clothes. You probably didn't notice because you were too busy looking for an intruder to notice slight changes like that. Higher stress levels can make you miss small details."

"But... Carm? That doesn't make any sense. She's been in her room since..." Amy stopped. When was the last time anyone actually _saw_ Carm? She had just sort of assumed that Carm was working hard on whatever it was she had shown up to do. "Why would she go to my house?"

"Sorry, Amy. You only paid me to find out who had been in your house. You didn't say anything about reasons. Nothing appears to be stolen. The only evidence that someone has been here is the papers in your trash and the closed pushed in the back of your closet."

"Maybe she was trying to get away from us," Amy thought aloud. "We might have been too loud for her and she needed to concentrate."

"You're not even listening to me now, are you?"

"Not that any of that explains why she would leave her stuff there... Or where she went. I suppose she may have gone home for the night... But on the same night that I went to my own home? That's a bit of a coincidence."

"I'm going to hang up now. Call me if you can think of anything else."

"I mean, she could have gone out to grab something to eat and when she got back I freaked her out by being there, so she just snuck off. I should go back to Kaoru's and talk to her... Wait. Should I be angry that she broke into my house? I mean... Nothing's missing... Hello?" Amy took the phone from her ear and stared at it for a moment before putting it back on the hook. "Rude," she muttered.

"Tails?" she asked, walking into the living room.

"Tails isn't here," Sonic told her. "But you're welcomed to join me. I was just going to..."

"Tell Tails that I won't be staying here tonight. My house is safe and I can go home."

"But Amy! I..."

He was cut off by the slamming of the front door. The hedgehog sighed and shook his head. "You don't come to the rescue one time and it's like the whole world explodes."

Amy let herself into Kaoru's house and looked around. Kaoru was still gone as expected and no one ever knew where Ash was. Running up the stairs she called Carm's name to let her know that she was coming. "Carm! I need to talk to you about something!"

She banged on Kaoru's bedroom door for a few seconds before letting herself in. It was obvious that no one had been there for a very hard time. The drink that Kaoru had made Carm to drink sat on the desk and was growing a large blue plant. "How can she be gone this long without anyone noticing?" Amy muttered to herself and she picked up the glass. The room had been left in disarray as if Carm left in a hurry which meant that she left quickly sometime in the middle of the party.

"But where is she now?" Amy said slowly, searching for clues around the room. "If she's not at my house and she isn't here then where else would she go?"


	29. Toys

When Amy got back to her house she began to look around outside to see if there were any signs of a struggle or really anything at all that would give her a clue as to where Carm might have gone. There had to be something that Vector didn't notice after he stopped looking. Carm couldn't have just disappeared without a trace. Her clothes had been noticed, so there had to be something else that would point in the right direction.

Amy searched for almost an hour. Finding nothing, she sat down at her front door and sighed deeply. "I guess I'll just have to talk to Kaoru when she gets back," she mumbled to herself.

"Talk to her about what?" Sonic asked, appearing in front of her. "What were you looking for?"

"Nothing, Sonic," Amy said stiffly, not looking up at him.

"It doesn't look like nothing. In fact, it kind of looked important from my point of view. You wouldn't have looked so long if it wasn't. Sounds like it's about Kaoru, right? I think I know where she is." Amy's head snapped up at this. "I heard her arguing with Shadow a few days ago. I think she's supposed to meet him somewhere around here. I don't know all the details but..."

"She's meeting Shadow?" Amy jumped up, smiling brightly. "That's wonderful! You have to take me to her! Right now! I need to see what she's doing. Let's go!" Clearly all of Amy's previous worries had been forgotten.

Sonic was confused by her enthusiasm, but he was happy that she was at least paying attention to him again. "Well, I don't exactly know where they are... I just..."

"YOU'RE THE FASTEST PERSON EVER! JUST RUN EVERYWHERE AND WE'LL FIND THEM EVENTUALLY! LET'S GO!" she yelled, running off a few meters before stopping to look at Sonic. "You know where they are! Not me! Let's go!"

* * *

Shadow leaned against a tree and frowned at the chameleon sleeping in a nearby burrow. He hadn't expected anyone to be around while he met Kaoru here and it was too late to change the location. It didn't make any sense. He had picked to meet in the forest because of the lack of chance that people would be around and now he had to deal with rogue chameleon.

From somewhere ahead, he heard someone yelp before what sounded like a bunch of twigs snapped. Someone must have tripped and fallen. He cursed to himself and cast a glance at the chameleon, who didn't seem to woken up. She sighed softly and turned over, causing Shadow to roll his eyes. She was so exposed out her. Anything could happen to her and she didn't even care. Slowly he walked past her towards the noise, scowling deeply. "Can you be making any more noise?" he sneered at the hare.

Kaoru pulled herself up and glared. "It's not like there's anyone around to hear us."

"That's where you'd be wrong. We should move before we're overheard."

"If you're trying to lure me into the forest, you can forget it!" Kaoru practically screamed.

Shadow moved so fast that she could barely see him. He covered her mouth from behind and hissed, "Shut up. She doesn't look that stable. If you wake her up who knows what will happen?"

"What the lemon are you talking about?" Kaoru said in a harsh whisper, turning to him after she released her. "There's no one here but us."

"Look, this isn't the time to argue. We have to..."

"This is taking too long," Kaoru said, getting impatient. "Can you just tell me what the favor is? I'd like to get out of here before..."

Suddenly, hands were on Kaoru's shoulders as she was forced to the ground from behind. Shadow jumped back a couple of steps, watching the struggle with disdain. From above, Ash fell onto Shadow's head, making him fall backwards. She untwisted herself from Shadow and jumped onto Carm, pulling her off of the hare who had refused to fight back against the chameleon.

"What the hell was that?" Ash asked after Carm managed to escape and run away. "And you!" she pointed into Kaoru's face. You've studied martial arts for years! You have black belts for heck's sake! What were you doing?"

Kaoru mumbled something about being a pacifist before turning back to Shadow to find Amy behind him, staring wide-eyed at the group in front of her. "Hey, Amy," Kaoru waved awkwardly.

The pink hedgehog opened and closed her mouth a few times before saying, "I...Sonic went after her. I was looking for you to tell you that she had been missing for a while. She must have been following you..."

"What?" Kaoru asked confused before shaking her head. "Nevermind. We'll figure it out later. Shadow, what was it that you needed?"

Shadow looked around himself at his two unwanted visitors before giving up and fishing a piece of paper out of his pocket. "I need you to build me something," he told her.

"You...What?" This was no where near where Kaoru thought this meeting was going to go. Yes, she had nearly been killed, but not at the hands of Shadow.

"Look," Shadow unfolded the piece of paper in his hand and showed her a diagram for a robot. "I need you to build this for me."

She took the paper from his hands. "Can't Tails do this?"

"I don't think Tails would want to. This is more of a...toy," Shadow replied, almost embarrassed.

"Toy? I don't think I can..."

"Don't lie to me," Shadow said flatly. "I've seen your notebook. I've seen all your pictures and plans. You have all the connections and materials needed to build this. You'd be willing to do it... And you owe me a favor."

"I..." Kaoru stared down at the paper. The picture was of a young girl. Along the side of the picture, there was a list of things Shadow would like the "toy" to do. "I think I can do this," she said finally. "I'll just need a few days."

Shadow nodded tersely and turned away. "I can give you a few days."

"Toys?" Ash asked after he was gone, taking the paper from Kaoru's hands.

"Yeah," Kaoru said. "Toys."

* * *

**A/N **

**Well everyone, that's it! That's the end of New Girl In Town! This leads directly into Sonic Products (with a three year gap) and there are hints as to what happened. Carm was put into a mental institution. This is how Kaoru got into the toy business. I pretty much refuse to make a Maria toy (And I doubt I'll change my mind) so this was a hint at one. And don't forget that you can read about Kaoru's childhood in Raising Kaoru. **

**Tell me all your thoughts in the review section. **

**Thanks for reading and I hope to see you in my other stories. **

**Have a good day and DFTBA**


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